If Labour wins Thursday’s General Election. expect three major housing announcements within a fortnight.
That’s the exclusive claim from the Sunday Times - which yesterday became the latest newspaper to declare itself for Labour.
The paper says one of the announcements will be a draft National Planning Policy Framework, which will reinstate the local housing targets abandoned by Housing Secretary Michael Gove last year.
The second will be a local authority-led review of the Green Belt: Labour has already suggested it will allow selective‘unattractive’ parts to be built on for housing.
The Times says this will involve local authorities setting up regular review periods, nominating parts of the Green Belt appropriate for development.
The third announcement will involve a so far unspecified new affordable house building programme.
Beyond that, Labour will announce plans to recruit some 300 new planning officers and give details of a ‘first dibs’ scheme to prioritise local first time buyers when new housing schemes go on sale.
Party leader Sir Kier Starmer says that if Labour wins he wants to “hit the ground running” on housing policy, and may cut short the traditional six week Parliamentary summer recess to begin legislation.
The newspaper - which carried a joint interview with Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves - makes no reference to the controversial Renters Reform Bill, which Labour has pledged to reintroduce with stronger tenant powers than in the original proposal.
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The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES), introduced by David Cameron in 2015, will also make a come back. In the Labour Party's manifesto it states that all rented houses and flats must meet the improved MEES standard by 2030, at the latest. This is under the Labour Party's "Warm Homes Plans". I know that many people call for politicians to have 'plans'; here's the Labour Party's plan to try to get 8 million families out of fuel poverty - this is defined as families who cannot heat themselves correctly during the winter months because of poor quality buildings.
I met with the Shadow Energy Minster, Dr Alan Whitehead, back at the beginning of May (before the General Election was called) and he told me that they would be looking to improve the current MEES standard within the first 100 days of a new government.
This Labour Party manifesto pledge doesn't come as a surprise to professional landlords. I would think that the vast majority of readers for LandlordToday and LettingAgentToday have already got their units up to EPC Grade C. Keeping tenants out of fuel poverty is common sense. A unit with a well insulated loft/roof/walls ensures that the tenant can heat their family and still have money left to pay the rent at the end of the month.
It's common sense.
Let’s hope that they don’t follow up on their own ‘independent’ housing review commissioned by Lisa Nandy!!!!….. one part recommends changing law do that landlords can only ever sell to another landlord if they’ve never lived in the property themselves!!!!….. imagine that!
Just move in for six months, then sell.
I am more worried that the Net Zero fanatics (see Gibbo above) will be drooling 🤪at the thought of minimum EPC ratings of C.
I have been asking my tenants of flats & houses - most have D ratings as most have solid brick walls what they would like:
Wall & floor insulation installed to save £250 to £350 a year on energy costs which will bring rent increases as the work has to be paid for?
Or
No rent increases for the foreseeable couple of years during which time energy costs are predicted to fall?
You don’t have to be Einstein to work out how the majority answer
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