With this December 2019 election results finalised, Ian Harris, Branch Manager at Norwich has put together a quick guide on the manifesto housing policies of the new Conservative government.
Whether you are a property seller, buyer, tenant landlord or living in social housing here’s a quick guide to the housing policies of the new government.
In addition, Watsons welcomes the start already made to regulate all sale, letting and managing property professionals.
For home owners…
- Implement a stamp duty surcharge on non-UK resident buyer
- Extend the Help to Buy scheme from 2021 to 2023 and support people who want to build their own homes find plots of land and access the Help to Buy scheme
- Encourage a new market in long-term fixed rate mortgages
- Offer more homes to local families, enabling councils to use developers’ contributions via the planning process to discount homes in perpetuity by a third for local people who cannot otherwise afford to buy in their area
- Continue with reforms to leasehold such as:
- Implementing a ban on the sale of new leasehold homes
- Restricting ground rents to a peppercorn
- Providing necessary mechanisms of redress for tenants
- Reform shared ownership by setting a single standard for all housing associations
- Renew the Affordable Homes Programme.
For the rental sector…
- Abolishing ‘no fault’ evictions (Section 21 notices)
- Require only one ‘lifetime’ deposit which moves with the tenant
- Implement legislation to protect renters from revenge evictions and rogue landlords
- Good landlords will benefit from strengthened rights of possession.
For social tenants…
- Commitment to a Right to Buy for all council tenants
- Maintain the voluntary Right to Buy scheme agreed with housing associations – Evaluate new pilot areas
- Bring forward a Social Housing White Paper.
To create much needed additional new homes…
- A target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s
- Make the planning system simpler for the public and small builders
- Allow residents a greater say on development by asking every community to decide on its own design standards for new development
- Support modern methods of construction.
For high rise block residents…
- Legislate for all the recommendations of the Hackitt Review into building safety (following Grenfell)
- Support high rise residential residents with the removal of unsafe cladding, and continue with a rigorous process of materials testing
If you want to speak to a property specialists to find out more, please call Watsons on 01603 619916 or email enquiries@watsons-property.co.uk.
