The UK General Election 2010 looms and currently nobody could be so certain of a winner that they would bet their house on it. Many experts are tipping the Conservative Party to take power from Labour for the first time in 13 years and if this were to happen what would be the impact of their policies, particularly where housing is concerned?
The Conservative Party is determined to make a good impression with their housing policies and they have pinpointed a number of key areas where they perceive the Labour government has failed the general public. Obviously, the relatively recent economic downturn has caused turmoil in the UK property market but there are other controllable factors that the Conservative Party believes should be rectified.
Firstly, the Conservatives point out that under Labour, fewer new homes are being built since 1924 (excluding wartime years). Secondly, in 2009 there was a record low of first-time buyers since records started. Thirdly, since Labour took power in 1997 the social housing waiting list has increased to almost 2 million people.
The Conservative Party intends to overhaul these perceived failures through a number of measures and they want to bring the power back to communities, local people and homeowners. They propose to start doing so by encouraging more first-time buyers onto the market by abolishing Stamp Duty on any first-time purchase of a value up to £250,000. Based on current figures this would ensure nine out of ten first-time buyers wouldn’t pay Stamp Duty. Additionally the Conservatives want to abolish Labour’s current scheme of filling density targets, with regards to building new homes, and instead make sure that new homes are only built when and where they are required.
The housing policy will also cater for rural communities as they will be afforded much greater control of local planning permission allowing them to manage the building of new housing in their area. This particularly concerns the building of new housing on an established Green Belt.
Concerning the problem of Social Housing in the UK property market the Conservatives will offer a 10% equity share, for social tenants who have a good behaviour record over 5 years, of their local authority property. If the tenant then intends to move up the property ladder the equity share can be exchanged for cash in order to achieve this.