What Does the Election Mean For Housing Market?: The Other Candidates

With just days until we go to the polls, it looks like the wheels are coming off for the Tory voters…

It’s not too late to get in touch with a mortgage broker and get the ball rolling on your new home or your next buy-to-let… let us know, we can find the right expert for you!

We’ve broken down the Tories and Labour’s policies, but with polls suggesting the Tories could face significant losses, it’s time to dig into what other parties have to offer.

The Prime Minister really should be focusing on ensuring his party wins the election, but Rishi Sunak is instead dealing with the controversy of a police officer in his protection team being suspended for allegedly gambling on the timing of the election. Laura Saunders, another Tory MP, also faces similar accusations, as well as the revelation that she is married to the party’s director of campaigning, Tony Lee.

As we said, polls suggest that the Tories could be left with just 53 seats and that the PM himself is in danger of losing his seat. So let’s look at who could be replacing them…

The Reform Party

It’s unlikely that you’re unaware of the Reform Party. It was originally founded in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, pushing for a no-deal Brexit. While it won the 2019 European Parliament election in the UK, it didn’t win any seats in the general election that year.

The party was renamed in 2021, a year after the UK withdrew from the EU.

Nigel Farage, the second leader of the party, took over again as leader on 3rd June this year, ready to fight in this general election. But what does the Reform Party stand for?

Their policies include:

• Tax cuts
• Cuts to immigration 
• Rejection of net zero
• Cutting NHS waiting times
• Increased police numbers
• An overhaul of the education system
• Scrapping interest on student loans
• Drastic reform of the benefits systems
• Further cutting of EU regulation
• Increased defence spending
• Revitalisation of farming
• Renewal of the fishing industry
• Constitutional reform

It’s an incredibly far reaching manifesto, with an emphasis on what the party calls ‘British culture, identity and values’. But where is housing in all of this?

Well, Reform do have plans for the property industry. They want to fast-track planning and tax incentives for the development of brown field sites, so there are more homes built. They also want to prioritise local people for social housing.

Their plans for tax cuts will likely also impact landlords too, as they will raise the minimum threshold of income tax to £20,000 and the higher rate threshold to £70,000. They also plan to abolish taxes on inheritances below £2million and, crucially, abolish stamp duty for properties below £750,000.

But their net zero plans could also affect the property industry too – by rejecting net zero, there is unlikely to be any pressure at all on landlords or homeowners to make environmental updates to their properties.

However, Reform remain a small party, they are nowhere near as established as the other parties. But, despite that, Nigel Farage’s party have shown they are ahead of the Tories in the polls, with the party winning in seven constituencies. Could this be because their policies seem to promise more money in your pocket?

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats, lead by Ed Davey, have laid out what they call a ‘fair deal’ with 11 key policies:

• Free personal care in England, similar to that available in Scotland
• More GPs and faster cancer treatment
• Increased public spending
• Scrapping the Rwanda scheme
• Reach net zero by 2045
• Scrap two-child limit and reform Carer’s Allowance
• Triple the early years pupil premium
• Speed up the courts process
• Recognise non-binary identities and ban conversion therapy
• Give 16-year-olds the vote and bring in proportional representation
• Rejoin the Single Market, in a bid to “fix the UK’s broken relationship with Europe”

There’s a lot in there and, as you can see, it’s quite at odds with the Reform proposals! Unlike Reform, they don’t have a dedicated housing proposition, but some of their policies will impact the housing market.

They want to increase public spending by £27bn by 2029 and at least £5bn of that increase would come from reforming Capital Gains Tax on the most wealthy. So if you are a significantly wealthy property holder or landlord, then that could impact you. However, the do plan to keep the freeze on the thresholds at which different rates of taxes on income apply. 

They also plan to find £7bn by cracking down on tax avoidance – now, we believe that tax avoiding landlords are very much in the minority, but if you have made any errors (deliberate or otherwise), you could find that coming back to bite you under a Lib Dem government.

The 2045 net zero target could also impact landlords and maybe even residential property owners, if there is a push for improved EPC ratings to make the target. The party have said that part of this plan is free insulation and heat pumps for those on low incomes, a “rooftop solar revolution” with more incentives for householders to put in solar panels. So there’s the possibility that the demands might not have a big financial impact. 

Speeding up the courts process is an interesting one too… Remember that the Tories said they would only scrap Section 21 when the courts were in a position to cope. It’s unlikely this is on the party’s mind when it comes to their promise to speed up the courts process, but it’s worth bearing in mind that that could change.

Greens

Finally, let’s take a look at the Green Party’s promises.

They kick off their manifesto with a pretty bleak look at our current situation, stating: 

We live in one of the richest countries on the planet, yet nurses are using food banks, our children’s schools are crumbling, a roof over our heads is all too often unaffordable, and hospital and dentist appointments are like gold dust.

So what does the Green Party propose to do about that?

• Big NHS investment
• Tax on assets over £10m
• Tax rise for earners on more than £50,270
• Scrap university tuition fees
• Net zero by 2040
• VAT-free culture and Leveson Inquiry part two
• Dismantle Trident, stay in Nato
• Free personal care
• Frequent flyer levies and short-haul flight bans
• Rent controls and no-fault evictions ban
• Nationalise railways, water and energy big five

Well, straight away – there’s those tax increases again! If you are a landlord with a large portfolio, you are definitely bound to get hit by these increases, so that is something to bear in mind.

However, the really big thing that will affect the property industry is the rent control promise and the no-fault evictions ban. The latter isn’t really news to anyone as the loss of Section 21 has been bandied about for years now. 

But elected Green MPs plan to push for councils to be allowed to impose rent controls as well as banning those no-fault evictions. Scotland has already introduced a 3% rent cap for private tenancies, so the Greens are looking to introduce something similar to England. While this would be a popular move with tenants, it’s likely to see even MORE landlords abandoning the sector, as they argue a cap lowers the quality of the homes they can offer as they cannot afford to invest in them.

The Green party also want to see 150,000 new social homes built per year with an end to Right to Buy. This is a huge target that hasn’t been achieved in years. Only 30,000 social homes were built in England from 2019 to 2023.

Do any of these smaller parties get your vote? What do you think of their manifestos?

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