The housing market is currently under a lot of stress and is facing some serious problems with fewer houses being built, increasing numbers of families being put on the waiting list for social housing and first-time buyers finding it harder than ever to get their feet on the property ladder. With these escalating problems the three main political parties (Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats) have realised the issue of housing is fast becoming a vote winner and how they decide to act on it could be vital to their success.
Back in 2007, in order to help first-time buyers, the Conservative Party announced that they would increase the stamp duty threshold to £250,000 which would effectively eradicate stamp duty for nine out of ten first time buyers. On the other hand, Labour, announced in the 2010 budget that they too would offer the same stamp duty benefits for first-time buyers.
Meanwhile, in order to solve the house shortage problem the Liberal Democrats are proposing to create community land trusts. By doing this enough public sector land would be made available to build over 100,000 new homes. In addition to that they are planning on renovating over 250,000 empty homes across the UK. Alternatively, the Conservatives are preparing to offer incentives to Local Councils and Local Housing Trusts which would encourage the building of more suitable and affordable homes. Labour are still sticking to their pledge of building 3 million new homes by the year 2020 and claim to have the money to do so but both other parties have already said, should they come to power, they would abolish these plans.
Another contentious issue among the three main parties is Home Information Packs, which were introduced by Labour in 2007. Labour intends to keep them, despite criticism they have received for increasing the cost of selling a house and making matters more complicated, because they provide useful information for potential buyers. Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats intend to scrap the Home Information Packs but simultaneously retain the Energy Performance Certificates which are included in the Home Information Packs. This is to ensure that there is an incentive in creating a greener, more energy efficient home because an EPC can be used to help market a property’s energy efficiency to prospective buyers.