Will you commit to ending the housing
emergency?
Par blog – they only provide the campaign
email address,
A number of constituents have sent me an email
regarding housing and homelessness. This important matter is never far from my
mind and issues around housing often form part of my case work.
The Conservative party manifesto is now published
and I am pleased with it. It recognises the further progress we need to see on
this important issue whilst setting realistic and achievable goals:
Helping people buy and rent
The biggest problem that young people
face in getting on the housing ladder
is the deposit. There are more than
three million people, many of them
with good jobs and secure prospects,
who would have been homeowners
before the economic crisis in 2008
but have been locked out of the
mortgage market. We will encourage
a new market in long-term fixed rate
mortgages which slash the cost of
deposits, opening up a secure path to
home ownership for first-time buyers
in all parts of the United Kingdom.
We will offer more homes to local
families, enabling councils to use
developers’ contributions via the
planning process to discount homes
in perpetuity by a third for local people
who cannot otherwise afford to buy in
their area. Councils could use this to
prioritise key workers in their area, like
police, nurses and teachers.
We will maintain our commitment to
a Right to Buy for all council tenants.
We will also maintain the voluntary
Right to Buy scheme agreed with
housing associations. Following the
successful voluntary pilot scheme in
the Midlands, we will evaluate new pilot
areas in order to spread the dream of
home ownership to even more people.
And we have extended the Help to
Buy scheme from 2021 to 2023 and
will review new ways to support home
ownership following its completion.
We will reform shared ownership,
making it fairer and more transparent.
We will simplify shared ownership
products by setting a single standard
for all housing associations, thereby
ending the confusion and disparity
between different schemes.
We will continue with our reforms to
leasehold including implementing
our ban on the sale of new leasehold
homes, restricting ground rents to a
peppercorn, and providing necessary
mechanisms of redress for tenants.
We will bring in a Better Deal for
Renters, including abolishing ‘no
fault’ evictions and only requiring one
‘lifetime’ deposit which moves with the
tenant. This will create a fairer rental
market: if you’re a tenant, you will be
protected from revenge evictions
and rogue landlords, and if you’re one
of the many good landlords, we will
strengthen your rights of possession.
The housing issue is a major issue and one that is
never far from my thoughts. I and the office help people with housing needs
every week. It is a stark reminder of the issue – if any were needed.
The biggest factor is housing pressures has been
significant changes in family demographics and it is proving a challenge to
build our way out of it. Having said new house builds frees up existing
properties.
