On 4 July 2024 a new UK Labour Government was elected. The Housing Forum has been very pleased to see housing taking a prominent role in Labour’s recent announcements including the ambitious housing targets, commitment to much-needed social housing and promised investment in decarbonisation.
We share Labour’s ambitions and this article sets out what we believe is needed to achieve them. It draws on our own Manifesto for Housing 2024, which was produced with the cross-sector expertise of The Housing Forum’s members and board.
We have laid out our recommendations along the key three themes of supply, affordability, and quality in separate pages below:
Supply
Labour have pledged to get Britain building again and to build 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament and recognise that the housing crisis is well known to be one of the country’s biggest barriers to growth.
The new government has already put in place plans to restore mandatory housing targets, ensure councils have up-to-date local plans, and strengthen the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
In order to achieve their ambition, more will need to be done to incentivise councils to meet housing targets, encourage building on brownfield land, resource the planning system and tackle nutrient pollution at source to stop nutrient neutrality rules getting in the way of new homes.
Read more about our plans for supply here.
Affordable housing and choice
Labour want to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.
To achieve this, they have several proposals which seek to increase the amount of social housing that can be subsidised via market housing. They advocate strengthening planning obligations to ensure new developments provide more affordable homes.
In addition to this, we think that planning policy should be adjusted to mandate more affordable housing on green field sites, have clear and consistent policy for affordable housing provision on sites, improve councils’ confidence using CPO powers, and create a Housing Accelerator Fund to tackle the affordable housing backlog, among other provisions. Importantly, the Right to Buy should be ended, and failing that thoroughly reformed, to slow down the loss of council homes.
Read more about our plans for affordable housing and choice here.
Quality
Labour say that they will take steps to ensure we are building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and creating places that increase climate resilience and promote nature recovery.
In order to achieve this, a number of changes are needed:
-Research into the quality of new technologies, and post occupancy monitoring to ensure that low carbon targets are understood and being delivered.
-A cross-sector roadmap to deliver low-carbon targets in new and existing homes, including homeowners in any plans.
-An update of the social rent formula to include properties’ energy efficiency.
-A workforce plan to develop the skills needed for low carbon housing.
-Collaboration between the government and private sector to create a reliable market for new low-carbon housing, including that built with Modern Methods of Construction.
Read more about our plans for quality here.
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