Housing proposals

Homes are increasingly unaffordable, forcing more people into the risk and uncertainty of a largely unregulated private rental sector. Housing needs to be more affordable but we must also have a rental sector that provides stable homes for those who either can't afford, or don't want, to buy. Our aspirations for housing are to;

• Release the housing market from the stranglehold of speculation and financial markets
• Build more houses and ensure all new builds meet better standards for space
• Protect private rental sector (PRS) tenants from unscrupulous letting agents
• Ensure tenants have more security of tenure and decent living standards
• Discourage the assumption that people need to 'get on the property ladder' by making rental more attractive and discouraging barely-affordable mortgages

Below are the ideas we will explore in Government in the hope of achieving these aims.

Housing Market

Concerning the market for buying and selling homes, we will work towards;

• Introducing new powers for local councils to issue compulsory purchases of land and property unused for three years or more, where the land could be used for new homes. Land and property purchased under such schemes will then be diverted to registered social landlords (RSLs) only, with a requirement that properties are either let at social rents or sold under shared ownership schemes.
• Requiring all of government (local and national) to continually review property and land portfolios, it's suitability for housing, and to sell to RSLs along the same lines as above.
• Scrapping the Help To Buy scheme which encourages those for whom houses are unaffordable to take out a risky and complicated financial product to help with their deposit.
• Lenders will be barred from offering mortgages for any more than 80% and prospective buyers will have to demonstrate comfortable affordability of mortgage payments in order to discourage those who can narrowly afford to buy from taking too big a risk

Private Rental Sector (PRS)

We will work towards;

• Introducing mandatory landlord licensing and registration[^1] to ensure private landlords can be held to appropriate standards, and prospective tenants can evaluate their prospective landlords
• Requiring all PRS landlords to meet the same Decent Homes Standard as social landlords, with a deadline of 2020, and interest-free loans available to help landlords meet renovation costs
• Introduce minimum requirements for self-regulation of letting agencies, overseen by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)
• Grant power to the HCA to step in and regulate letting agents if it feels self-regulation isn't satisfactory
• Ban letting agents from charging fees to tenants, shifting the cost onto the landlords who are benefitting and preventing tenant exploitation
• Introduce legal minimum Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) of five years with tenants able to give notice after the first year and section 21 notices only available to the landlord after give years[^1]
• Giving landlords who give tenants long term (3 years or more) tenancy agreements will benefit from a reduced income tax rate on their rental profit
• Introducing an "earned notice" model, as proposed by Generation Rent[^1], ensuring tenants have a minimum of two months notice to vacate a property but notice period would increase while the tenant remained, up to a limit of 9 months
• Preventing rents from increasing more than inflation, ensuring that rents do not outstrip wages, and by setting rent caps based on local earnings[^1]
• Implementing a deposit bond scheme to replace existing tenancy deposits, underwritten by Government, and as recommended by Generation Rent[^1]
• Linking the Rent a Room tax break to inflation
• Extending the Right of First Refusal to all tenants of a property being sold by a private landlord and additionally preventing landlords from accepting offers below any offers made by tenants but refused
• Requiring all deposit protection schemes to be custodial, thereby preventing a landlord from exiting a scheme and forcing the tenant through the courts

References

[^1]: Generation Rent Manifesto (PDF) June 2014

Homes are increasingly unaffordable, forcing more people into the risk and uncertainty of a largely unregulated private rental sector. Housing needs to be more affordable but we must also have a rental sector that provides stable homes for those who either can't afford, or don't want, to buy. Our aspirations for housing are to;

• Release the housing market from the stranglehold of speculation and financial markets
• Build more houses and ensure all new builds meet better standards for space
• Protect private rental sector (PRS) tenants from unscrupulous letting agents
• Ensure tenants have more security of tenure and decent living standards
• Discourage the assumption that people need to 'get on the property ladder' by making rental more attractive and discouraging barely-affordable mortgages

Below are the ideas we will explore in Government in the hope of achieving these aims.

Housing Market

Concerning the market for buying and selling homes, we will work towards;

• Starting a secondary housing market, where funding is provided to build homes that must be sold at cost, with the proceeds being reinvested into building more homes on the same basis.
• Introducing new powers for local councils to issue compulsory purchases of land and property unused for three years or more, where the land could be used for new homes. Land and property purchased under such schemes will then be diverted to registered social landlords (RSLs) only, with a requirement that properties are either let at social rents or sold under shared ownership schemes.
• Requiring all of government (local and national) to continually review property and land portfolios, it's suitability for housing, and to sell to RSLs along the same lines as above.
• Scrapping the Help To Buy scheme which encourages those for whom houses are unaffordable to take out a risky and complicated financial product to help with their deposit.
• Lenders will be barred from offering mortgages for any more than 80% and prospective buyers will have to demonstrate comfortable affordability of mortgage payments in order to discourage those who can narrowly afford to buy from taking too big a risk

Private Rental Sector (PRS)

We will work towards;

• Introducing mandatory landlord licensing and registration[^1] to ensure private landlords can be held to appropriate standards, and prospective tenants can evaluate their prospective landlords
• Requiring all PRS landlords to meet the same Decent Homes Standard as social landlords, with a deadline of 2020, and interest-free loans available to help landlords meet renovation costs
• Introduce minimum requirements for self-regulation of letting agencies, overseen by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)
• Grant power to the HCA to step in and regulate letting agents if it feels self-regulation isn't satisfactory
• Ban letting agents from charging fees to tenants, shifting the cost onto the landlords who are benefitting and preventing tenant exploitation
• Introduce legal minimum Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) of five years with tenants able to give notice after the first year and section 21 notices only available to the landlord after give years[^1]
• Giving landlords who give tenants long term (3 years or more) tenancy agreements will benefit from a reduced income tax rate on their rental profit
• Introducing an "earned notice" model, as proposed by Generation Rent[^1], ensuring tenants have a minimum of two months notice to vacate a property but notice period would increase while the tenant remained, up to a limit of 9 months
• Preventing rents from increasing more than inflation, ensuring that rents do not outstrip wages, and by setting rent caps based on local earnings[^1]
• Implementing a deposit bond scheme to replace existing tenancy deposits, underwritten by Government, and as recommended by Generation Rent[^1]
• Linking the Rent a Room tax break to inflation
• Extending the Right of First Refusal to all tenants of a property being sold by a private landlord and additionally preventing landlords from accepting offers below any offers made by tenants but refused
• Requiring all deposit protection schemes to be custodial, thereby preventing a landlord from exiting a scheme and forcing the tenant through the courts
• Landlords will be required to submit audited accounts to HMRC and the HCA so that wear and tear costs are properly accounted for.

References

[^1]: Generation Rent Manifesto (PDF) June 2014

Homes are increasingly unaffordable, forcing more people into the risk and uncertainty of a largely unregulated private rental sector. Housing needs to be more affordable but we must also have a rental sector that provides stable homes for those who either can't afford, or don't want, to buy. Our aspirations for housing are to;

• Release the housing market from the stranglehold of speculation and financial markets
• Build more houses and ensure all new builds meet better standards for space
• Protect private rental sector (PRS) tenants from unscrupulous letting agents
• Ensure tenants have more security of tenure and decent living standards
• Discourage the assumption that people need to 'get on the property ladder' by making rental more attractive and discouraging barely-affordable mortgages

Below are the ideas we will explore in Government in the hope of achieving these aims.

Housing Market

Concerning the market for buying and selling homes, we will work towards;

• Starting a secondary housing market, where funding is provided to build homes that must be sold at cost, with the proceeds being reinvested into building more homes on the same basis.
• Introducing new powers for local councils to issue compulsory purchases of land and property unused for three years or more, where the land could be used for new homes. Land and property purchased under such schemes will then be diverted to registered social landlords (RSLs) only, with a requirement that properties are either let at social rents or sold under shared ownership schemes.
• Requiring all of government (local and national) to continually review property and land portfolios, it's suitability for housing, and to sell to RSLs along the same lines as above.
• Scrapping the Help To Buy scheme which encourages those for whom houses are unaffordable to take out a risky and complicated financial product to help with their deposit.
• Lenders will be barred from offering mortgages for any more than 80% and prospective buyers will have to demonstrate comfortable affordability of mortgage payments in order to discourage those who can narrowly afford to buy from taking too big a risk

Private Rental Sector (PRS)

We will work towards;

• Introducing mandatory landlord licensing and registration[^1] to ensure private landlords can be held to appropriate standards, and prospective tenants can evaluate their prospective landlords
• Requiring all PRS landlords to meet the same Decent Homes Standard as social landlords, with a deadline of 2020, and interest-free loans available to help landlords meet renovation costs
• Introduce minimum requirements for self-regulation of letting agencies, overseen by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)
• Grant power to the HCA to step in and regulate letting agents if it feels self-regulation isn't satisfactory
• Ban letting agents from charging fees to tenants, shifting the cost onto the landlords who are benefitting and preventing tenant exploitation
• Introduce legal minimum Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) of five years with tenants able to give notice after the first year and section 21 notices only available to the landlord after give years[^1]
• Giving landlords who give tenants long term (3 years or more) tenancy agreements will benefit from a reduced income tax rate on their rental profit
• Introducing an "earned notice" model, as proposed by Generation Rent[^1], ensuring tenants have a minimum of two months notice to vacate a property but notice period would increase while the tenant remained, up to a limit of 9 months
• Preventing rents from increasing more than inflation, ensuring that rents do not outstrip wages, and by setting rent caps based on local earnings[^1]
• Implementing a deposit bond scheme to replace existing tenancy deposits, underwritten by Government, and as recommended by Generation Rent[^1]
• Linking the Rent a Room tax break to inflation
• Extending the Right of First Refusal to all tenants of a property being sold by a private landlord and additionally preventing landlords from accepting offers below any offers made by tenants but refused
• Requiring all deposit protection schemes to be custodial, thereby preventing a landlord from exiting a scheme and forcing the tenant through the courts
• Landlords will be required to submit audited accounts to HMRC and the HCA so that wear and tear costs are properly accounted for.
• Written tenancy agreements will be made mandatory with model agreements provided by the regulator.

References

[^1]: Generation Rent Manifesto (PDF) June 2014

Homes are increasingly unaffordable, forcing more people into the risk and uncertainty of a largely unregulated private rental sector. Housing needs to be more affordable but we must also have a rental sector that provides stable homes for those who either can't afford, or don't want, to buy. Our aspirations for housing are to;

• Release the housing market from the stranglehold of speculation and financial markets
• Build more houses and ensure all new builds meet better standards for space
• Protect private rental sector (PRS) tenants from unscrupulous letting agents
• Ensure tenants have more security of tenure and decent living standards
• Discourage the assumption that people need to 'get on the property ladder' by making rental more attractive and discouraging barely-affordable mortgages

Below are the ideas we will explore in Government in the hope of achieving these aims.

Housing Market

Concerning the market for buying and selling homes, we will work towards;

• Starting a secondary housing market, where funding is provided to build homes that must be sold at cost, with the proceeds being reinvested into building more homes on the same basis.
• Introducing new powers for local councils to issue compulsory purchases of land and property unused for three years or more, where the land could be used for new homes. Land and property purchased under such schemes will then be diverted to registered social landlords (RSLs) only, with a requirement that properties are either let at social rents or sold under shared ownership schemes.
• Requiring all of government (local and national) to continually review property and land portfolios, it's suitability for housing, and to sell to RSLs along the same lines as above.
• Scrapping the Help To Buy scheme which encourages those for whom houses are unaffordable to take out a risky and complicated financial product to help with their deposit.
• Lenders will be barred from offering mortgages for any more than 80% and prospective buyers will have to demonstrate comfortable affordability of mortgage payments in order to discourage those who can narrowly afford to buy from taking too big a risk

Private Rental Sector (PRS)

We will work towards;

• Introducing mandatory landlord licensing and registration[^1] to ensure private landlords can be held to appropriate standards, and prospective tenants can evaluate their prospective landlords
• Requiring all PRS landlords to meet the same Decent Homes Standard as social landlords, with a deadline of 2020, and interest-free loans available to help landlords meet renovation costs
• Introduce minimum requirements for self-regulation of letting agencies, overseen by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)
• Grant power to the HCA to step in and regulate letting agents if it feels self-regulation isn't satisfactory
• Ban letting agents from charging fees to tenants, shifting the cost onto the landlords who are benefitting and preventing tenant exploitation
• Introduce legal minimum Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) of five years with tenants able to give notice after the first year and section 21 notices only available to the landlord after five years[^1]
• Giving landlords who give tenants long term (3 years or more) tenancy agreements a reduced income tax rate on their rental profit
• Introducing an "earned notice" model, as proposed by Generation Rent[^1], ensuring tenants have a minimum of two months notice to vacate a property but notice period would increase while the tenant remained, up to a limit of 9 months
• Preventing rents from increasing more than inflation, ensuring that rents do not outstrip wages, and by setting rent caps based on local earnings[^1]
• Implementing a deposit bond scheme to replace existing tenancy deposits, underwritten by Government, and as recommended by Generation Rent[^1]
• Linking the Rent a Room tax break to inflation
• Extending the Right of First Refusal to all tenants of a property being sold by a private landlord and additionally preventing landlords from accepting offers below any offers made by tenants but refused
• Requiring all deposit protection schemes to be custodial, thereby preventing a landlord from exiting a scheme and forcing the tenant through the courts
• Landlords will be required to submit audited accounts to HMRC and the HCA so that wear and tear costs are properly accounted for.
• Written tenancy agreements will be made mandatory with model agreements provided by the regulator.

References

[^1]: Generation Rent Manifesto (PDF) June 2014