LThe Labour Party has delivered a damming verdict on the Government’s Housing policy, publishing a new analysis that claims a child born this year has less than a one in three chance of being a homeowner by the age of 50, as the Party’s leadership say they are now “proudly the party of homeownership”.
The Party claim that the proportion of people owning their home at age 50 has plummeted under the Conservatives, falling from three in four in 2009-10 to below two in three on latest figures.
They say that if this rate was maintained, in 50 years’ time this rate will have plummeted to below one in three.
This would mean millions of people will go decades without the security of owning their own home.
Alongside reforms to the planning system to get more houses built, the next Labour government says it will support first-time buyers with a comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme that would help prospective homeowners who struggle to save for a deposit, giving more people the pride and security that comes with owning their own home.
Labour also say they will give first-time buyers first dibs on new houses in their area, and tilt the system back in favour of local people by stopping foreign buyers buying up swathes of new housing developments before they are completed and offered to locals.
The Party says that in the “midst of the current cost of living crisis, Labour have pledged during the local elections that a Labour government would freeze council tax this year, funded by a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants”.
The new attack on the Conservatives, as the local election campaigns enter its final week, marks another attempt by Labour to go after the Government on a policy area it has traditionally been seen as week on.
As part of the attack, Labour has published a Housing Plan. In the plan they set a target for homeownership of 70 per cent or1.5 million new homeowners.
And they say they will introduce a state-backed mortgage insurance scheme, with the state acting as guarantor for prospective homeowners who struggle to save for a large deposit. This will be modelled on similar successful schemes in other countries, such as Canada and Australia, where mortgage insurance increases the supply and reduces the cost of high loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages.
Alongside the insurance scheme and plans to make it more difficult for foreign buyers, Labour have pledged to reform the planning system to ensure more new homes can be built, with local people given a meaningful say on plans for development in their area and strengthen tenants’ rights with a Renters’ Charter that will make renting fairer, more secure and more affordable.
Labour believes that by underlining not just failures on cost of living, but on the chronic failure of the Conservatives to actively support young people and families to get onto the housing ladder will help them win swathes of Council seats and act as a springboard from winning the next general election.
Lisa Nandy MP, Labour’s Shadow Levelling Up & Housing Secretary, said: “The Conservatives have abandoned first-time buyers. On their watch homeownership rates have plummeted and mortgage costs have soared, and now Rishi Sunak has prioritised appeasing his own MPs over building the houses we need.
“Labour is proudly the party of homeownership. A Labour government will set a target for 70 per cent homeownership giving young people and families the pride and security that comes with owning their own home.
“We will reform planning to get more homes built and actively support first-time buyers with a comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme and by giving them first dibs on new houses in their area. Along with our mission to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 and to tackle the cost of living crisis, we will build a better Britain.”
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