By Jessica Frank-Keyes
Labour has invited developers to work in “lock step” with the party on house building to deliver 1.5m new homes over the next five years.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer launches the ‘Freedom to Buy’ scheme in a bid to get young people on the housing ladder, via a permanent state-backed mortgage guarantee scheme.
Speaking exclusively to City A.M., deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner invited businesses to work in partnership with the party, pledging: “Only business can get Britain building – our job is to make it easier.”
The party will offer ‘first dibs’ on new developments to local people, it said, as well as taxing foreign buyers to fund new planning officers to approve the homes needed.
Rayner said: “The day before this election was called I spoke to a conference of developers about Labour’s plan to get Britain building.
“It will be housebuilders like those in the room who will help us to build our ambition for 1.5m new homes over the next five years.
“Only by working in lock step with the housing developers, investors and housebuilders can we get Britain building again.”
The MP for Ashton-under-Lyne added: “Over the past 14 years it’s become harder and harder to get shovels in the ground. Housebuilding has slumped, meaning we all lose out from the economic growth it would have otherwise generated.”
Labour, she pledged, will launch a “housing recovery plan to quickly boost housebuilding”, as as well as “kickstart[ing] the next generation of new towns and bring in new ‘planning passports’ to fast-tracked brownfield development”.
And she said: “In return we will expect that developers build the kinds of homes people want to live in, with transport links, green spaces and plenty of social and affordable homes too.”
Rayner admitted “challenges remain” with a “drought of skills and sky-high materials prices”, but vowed: “Every time I meet with developers… I’m told they want to build more houses.
“The country needs them, so my offer to business is let’s work together to find a way. It’s time for change and that’s what this changed Labour Party is offering.”
Labour said new data analysis showed planning applications and approvals were at their lowest since records began.
Applications dropped by almost 14 per cent in 2022/23, they said, while approvals fell by 17 per cent that year compared to 2021/22.
The party has pledged to hire 300 new planners to clear the backlog and accelerate reforms to the planning system to get more applications submitted.
They have also previously said they would act to “reintroduce housing targets”, fast-track planning permissions on brownfield land and prioritise “grey belt” building.
House building firms welcomed the move, with Rob Perrins, chief executive of Berkeley Homes, saying: “We support the ambition to build 1.5m good green homes of all tenures over the next five years.
“Berkeley has long championed the need for planning reform to unlock barriers to building, as well as reforms to the mortgage market to ensure everyone, particularly first time buyers, have an equal chance to get their feet on the property ladder.”
While Barratt Developments boss David Thomas added: “We welcome proposals that could help more people buy their first home in a challenging market.”
He said it was important to “improve the current planning system, which includes setting housing targets in local plans and recruiting more skilled planners”.
But Conservative Chancellor Jeremy Hunt courted homeowners during the general election campaign this week, including in a Telegraph article promising a ‘family home tax guarantee’.
Hunt said it was a commitment “not to increase the number of council tax bands, undertake an expensive council tax revaluation, or cut council tax discounts”, and to not increase the rate or level of stamp duty which buyers pay when they purchase property.
And he wrote: “I am throwing down the gauntlet to [shadow Chancellor] Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer to join us in this pledge. This isn’t party political point-scoring. I actually want to see the Labour Party say they will put families first and higher taxes second.”
