Labour IN: What does it mean for Landlords?
The results are IN and Labour are back in government after 14 years.
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Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is returning to power with a huge parliamentary majority; securing 412 seats, after an abysmal showing by the Tories, who managed only 121 seats. The Conservative party’s defeat was marred by gambling scandals and in-fighting.
‘Change starts now’, Starmer declared… But what does that change look like for the property industry?
What happened on Election Night?
Labour suffered one of their worst defeats ever in 2019, when they faced Boris Johnson’s Conservative party, losing 202 seats.
But things couldn’t look more different now, with lost seats for key Tory figures like Jacob Rees-Mogg and ex-PM Liz Truss. Even Rishi Sunak has vowed to step down as leader of the Conservative Party, with Kemi Badenoch, currently Shadow Housing Secretary, tipped to succeed him.
So now that the ‘Starmer tsunami’, as one opponent dubbed it, has hit the country – what does that mean for the property industry?
Starmer’s cabinet
Taking over from Michael Gove, who retired at this election, as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, is new Deputy PM Angela Rayner.
Rayner hails from a council estate in Stockport, Greater Manchester and has previously worked as a carer and trade union leader before entering party politics. With a background completely at odds with the privileged upbringing of some of her Tory counterparts, many will feel hopeful having Ms Rayner at the helm of housing can be only be a good thing. However, she did face questions earlier this year over the sale of her council house, though police and tax authorities have since confirmed she is not guilty of any wrongdoing.
Labour are moving quickly when it comes to housing, only a week in power and new Chancellor Rachel Reeve has already announced in her first speech as Chancellor, that Labour plans to rebuild Britain and “make every part of the country better off”.
These plans include:
- ‘Urgent steps’ to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years
- Immediate removal of the de facto ban on onshore wind in England
- Reform the planning system by identifying and unblocking key ‘stalled sites’ to get large housing schemes moving forward. This would start with four sites, which would unlock over 14,000 homes: Liverpool Central Docks, Northstowe, Worcester Parkway and Langley Sutton Coldfield
- Supporting local authorities with 300 additional planning officers across the country
- Launching a “landmark” consultation in the coming months on an updated, growth-focused National Planning Policy Framework, which will include mandatory housing targets and a requirement to review greenbelt boundaries where necessary to meet them
- Prioritisation of brown field and grey belt land for development
- New ‘golden rules’ to deliver thousands of affordable homes, including more for social rent
Labour even plan to drop ‘Levelling Up’ from the department name, reverting back to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Communities Minister Jim McMahon said this decision was made because “levelling up was only ever a slogan, it wasn’t a thing that people felt in their communities”.
However, Labour is not without its scandals, even in its first week, as housing minister Matthew Pennycook is revealed to have tried to block a £770 million property development in his constituency, despite the Labour Government’s campaign against this ‘not in my back yard’ practice.
Property promises
The new Chancellor has also confirmed that Labour plans to include a ban on Section 21 evictions. We’ve been talking about the comings and goings of Section 21 for years now. But it appears that losing Section 21 is very firmly on the agenda for Labour, saying: “For those in the private rented sector we will finally get rid of ‘no fault’ evictions to help those not fortunate enough to either own their own home or have access to social housing”.
Now that we have a new government in place, thoughts are also turning back to environmental targets. Nothing has officially been announced – yet! – but there is a very strong likelihood that Ed Miliband, heading up the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, will be pushing for PRS homes to reach a minimum EPC rating of C by 2030.
And what about those new home pledges? The Tories famously promised to build 300,000 new homes every year, but fell massively behind, due to the rising costs created by Brexit and the pandemic, which brought everything to a grinding halt.
Labour plan to achieve this through the development of ‘new towns’. Milton Keynes is a great example of a 20th century new town, built in 1967 and designated a city in 2022, it now home to more than a quarter of a million people and now boasts a theatre, art gallery, concert hall, football stadium and a small university campus.
Another approach Labour might take is ‘super extensions’, which are circular satellites to existing towns, with good links to town centres, a range of facilities and excellent public transport. Woodland and green belt buffers would be built in, to reduce local opposition.
How do you feel about the Labour landslide? Are you looking forward to change or worried about what the future might hold, especially regarding the EPC targets?
