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Labour launches manifesto with new housing powers for councils
Labour has launched its election manifesto, unveiling new housing policies including giving councils extra powers and duties to build 100,000 social rent homes a year.
Last night the party trailed a pledge to build at least 150,000 new social homes a year within five years with two-thirds of these delivered by local authorities, backed by £75bn in funding.
The manifesto describes how if Jeremy Corbyn is elected prime minister next month, a Labour government “will establish a new duty on councils to plan and build these homes in their area”.
And it would “review the case for reducing the amount of housing debt councils currently hold”, as well as giving town halls “powers and funding to buy back homes from private landlords”.
Other new promises include an extra £1bn a year for council homelessness services and a doubling of the commitment at the 2017 general election to provide 4,000 homes for people with a history of rough sleeping.
The party said it would also seek to introduce a “use it or lose it” land tax for developers of stalled housing schemes.
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At a launch event in Birmingham this morning, Mr Corbyn claimed that it was a “manifesto of hope” with the potential to deliver “real change”.
The manifesto reaffirmed a promise to scrap Universal Credit, announced by Mr Corbyn last month.
It also repeated pledges such as ending the Right to Buy, banning leasehold ownership and making all new homes zero-carbon.
There is no mention of giving private tenants the right to buy their home – as was hinted at by shadow chancellor John McDonnell in September.
Nor is there any signal that Labour would seek to give councils the power to take direct control of housing associations, which was included in a motion passed unanimously by delegates at the party conference.
On fire safety, Labour stuck with its pledge to set up a £1bn fund for sprinklers and other safety measures in social housing high rises and suggested that “mandatory building standards and guidance” would be “inspected and enforced by fully trained fire and rescue service fire safety officers”.
The Conservatives are yet to publish their manifesto, but today unveiled a pledge to build “at least” a million new homes over the next five years – significantly less than the 300,000 annual target set under previous prime minister Theresa May and lower than current levels.
The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto promised to build at least 100,000 homes for social rent a year.
General election 2019: Labour housing pledges
- 150,000 new social homes a year within five years, 100,000 of which are to be built by councils
- A review on reducing council housing debt
- Powers and funding for councils to buy back homes from private landlords
- Ending of the Right to Buy
- £1bn a year for council homelessness services and extra shelters
- 8,000 homes for people with a history of rough sleeping, with a pledge to end rough sleeping in five years
- A “use it or lose it” land tax for developers of stalled housing schemes
- Confirmation of the promise to scrap Universal Credit as well as the bedroom tax and benefit cap, while increasing Local Housing Allowance rates
- A ban on leasehold ownership
- A zero-carbon standard for all new homes
- Resident ballots on regeneration schemes
- A new Decent Homes Programme
- Help to Buy reforms and new discount homes with prices linked to local incomes
- Scrapping of permitted development rights for office-to-residential schemes
- £1bn of fire safety funding, with building standards regulated by fire services
- A new English Sovereign Land Trust
- Scrapping of the existing definition of “affordable” housing, to be replaced with a term linked to local incomes
- Ending of the “forced conversion” of social rent homes to affordable rent
- Open-ended private tenancies and capping of rents at inflation, with cities given powers for further rent controls
- Nationwide private landlord licensing and new renters’ unions
- End of rules requiring landlords to check tenants’ immigration status and allowing them to exclude people on housing benefit
- New council powers to regulate short-term lets
- A holiday homes levy to raise money for homelessness services
- A levy on overseas companies buying housing with local people given first refusal
- Repeal of the Vagrancy Act
- A review of planning guidance for developments in flood risk areas
