The Generation Rent activist group has issued a statement appearing sharply critical of Labour’s first new policy on housing in the General Election campaign.
Labour is today launching a permanent extension to the existing Conservative government mortgage guarantee scheme.
The Tory version is open only until June 2025 but Labour says its version would be “more comprehensive” by offering a permanent product for first-time buyers and families looking to get on the ladder.
This will establish insured mortgages as an integral part of the market that lenders and borrowers can confidently navigate. A statement from the party says: “A Labour government will work with lenders and industry on increasing uptake of the scheme and ensure front line mortgage advisors are aware of the product and can confidently offer it prospective buyers who want to get on the ladder.”
Labour is also today reiterating its existing broad-brush housing policies -
- Planning reform to build 1.5 million homes: in the long-term best way to help young people is to build more homes. “We will reintroduce housing targets, build on disused grey belt land, fast track permissions on brownfield and build the next generation of new towns”;
- First dibs: “work with developers to give local people ‘first dibs’ on new developments, ending the farce of entire developments sold off to international investors before local people get a look in.”
- Tax foreign buyers to fund planning officers: “tax foreign buyers pricing out young people to fund new planning officers to approve homes next generation needs”;
- Reform compulsory purchase rules to get homes built: “reform compulsory purchase rules to stop speculators frustrating housebuilding and squeezing value from infrastructure and affordable housing. Where necessary we will not hesitate to use reformed compulsory purchase orders to support housebuilding and infrastructure delivery.”
However, there is no mention of rental reform in the statement today, provoking a strong reaction from the activist group Generation Rent.
Ben Twomey, Generation Rent chief executive, says: "Renters deserve security too. While attention to the housing struggles of young adults is welcome, our work or personal circumstances mean not all of us are able to live at home with parents until we save enough to buy our first home. 12 million people are privately renting right now and more than half of us have no savings at all.
“Trying to put aside a house deposit while renting is like pushing a boulder up a hill that keeps getting steeper and steeper. The next government must slam the brakes on soaring rents by limiting the current free-for-all that’s forcing a third of renters’ incomes straight into the pockets of landlords.
“This proposed scheme would make permanent the existing ability for people to buy their first home with just a 5% deposit. But 5% still means £12,497 on the average first time buyer mortgage, and as much as £21,669 if looking to buy in London. If rent rises continue to outpace wage growth, more tenants could face homelessness than benefit from this scheme.”
Sir Kier Starmer, launching his party’s so-called ‘Freedom To Buy’ policy for first time buyers, says: “My parents’ home gave them security and was a foundation for our family. As Prime Minister, I will turn the dream of owning a home into a reality. Our changed Labour Party will be on the side of the builders not the blockers, to get Britain building again.
“My Labour Government will help first-time buyers onto the ladder with a new Freedom to Buy scheme for those without a large deposit, and by giving them first dibs on new developments.
“Labour backs hard work and ambition, and will clear the way for the opportunity to own a home. It’s time to stop the chaos, turn the page, and rebuild Britain.”
And Angela Rayner, Labour Deputy Leader and Shadow Housing Secretary, adds: “Labour’s new Freedom to Buy scheme will deliver for working people across the country. We will deliver more action on housing in the first year of a Labour Government than this crumbling Conservative government has managed in over a decade.
“Labour’s plan would get Britain building again with a new scheme to help young people get a mortgage and with a housing recovery plan, creating a generation of new towns and unlocking economic growth across Britain.
"Labour is the party of homeownership, and the only Party serious about building the homes Britain needs. We will deliver the change needed and end the Tory chaos.”
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It sounds like Labour are being eminently sensible and not listening entirely to the crazed rants of Generation Rent. However their policies with regards to the PRS remain to be seen. But on the face of it it all sounds good. Under the Blair government Labour worked with landlords and the PRS was healthy with plenty of investment. The market kept rents low as their was plenty of competition between landlords.
I agree, this could have legs. Let's hope a realistic approach and more importantly a pro-active approach to Landlords is forthcoming.
Generation Rant and Ben Twomey are upset because Labour want to be the party of homeowners? Good. 😉
Nothing from Polly Bleat yet, which is curious. 🤔
Wasn't it the renters' unions that started off the war on landlords by complaining that they were buying up property to rent out and forcing hapless would-be buyers to rent instead, thereby lining the pockets of greedy landlords who should therefore subjected to crackdowns to discourage them from such nefarious actions?
Does Ben not know how easy it is to slam the Brakes on rising Rents.
Remove the causes starting with himself, Shelter, The Renters Reform Bill, Energy Performance Certificate ‘C’, The Mandatory Licensing Schemes, The Additional Licensing, The Selective Licensing Schemes now Borough wide in many cases including for renting to Families, you’ll find where all this has been introduced rents have been forced up. People complain about HMO licence Application fees which has gone from £598. in 2007 to £1’650. now and redone 4 times but only the tip of the iceberg Compliance costs several times more. Does Ben not know any of this the New kid on the Block, is he oblivious to all this. I wonder why rents went up ? ? ?.
I am just waiting for the next group to start up Generation Buy now there’s a soft CEO number for someone.
Oh dear, no. Of course he isn't bothered about facts. Or information that can't be made into a newsworthy soundbite or X post. So half of renters have no savings, according to him. I would not be surprised if a significant proportion of the no saving group s
There would be consequences removing section 21 restricting Landlords ability to evict tenants. It’s unlikely Labour want to crash the market. Whereas, supporting the housing ladder is a safe policy attracting votes.
In a galaxy far, far away… Obi Ben Twomey set his sights on a new Rebel Alliance in his lifelong quest to destroy the planet PRS…
He must be on another planet because he’s not on ours.
At 20% up in the polls Sneer Charmer has decided he doesn't need the rental vote, and has thrown Looney Toomey and his spotty faced band of ranters under the bus.
Boo Hoo Benny Boy.
I am not sure that because Labour hasn't mentioned the PRS, doesn't mean that they are not going to abolish Section 21 straight away.
They may be concerned about too many Section 21 notices being served prior to the election.
Abolishing Sec 21 immediately would effectively be an ‘eviction ban’ and collapse the already disfunctional Court system.
Unless we hear some kind of retraction statement from Labour, we should assume Sec 21 will be thrown out from the outset.
I agree, AJR.
The thing is with ever more costs being placed on landlords he is required by Law to Charge more Rent, it is a condition of the Licensing Schemes.
Management Arrangements,
“management structures and funding arrangements must be suitable “ ie charging enough to be viable otherwise how is the Council going to get their cut.
Before you apply for a licence check your rents are affordable if not you’ll need extra residents first. Licensing is a sitting Tenants Charter as long as you have them before Applying for the licence, they can stay indefinitely so nurse them if they leave you can’t replace them those licensed sitting Tenants are valuable.
Being a glass 🥃 half full kinda guy I see their announcement 📣 slightly differently 🤔 yes they are prioritising FTB’ers ( 👍🏻), but the best way to assist them is to target us and ensure we sell 🤔, now I am selling up anyway, come what May ( age and all ), but what of those that don’t wish too ? Not so sure we are out of the woods yet 🌲.
I agree we are not of the woods yet Simon as we don’t know what Labour have in store for the PRS but we can live in hope that common sense will prevail to some extent.
On oversight only, Labours policy decision making in this campaign is decided by rock, paper, stone.
Labour backs 'Hard work and ambition'....
Generation rant must be infuriated and looking those words up in the dictionary right now !
Hooray!!
Hard work and ambition ... that's how and why I put everything I had into investing in property and putting a roof over other people's heads, despite my own personal challenges. Clearly some types of hard work and ambition are more acceptable than others!
The biggest worry for PRS landlords is surely what Labour and especially Angela Rayner and Sadiq Khan (who seems to have disappeared) isn't saying as to how Labour intends to annihilate private landlords.
We don't have enough builders as it is, but Labour will find them....with no immigration of course.
Building awful houses on the beautiful countryside, miles from any city centre is the answer to the housing crisis apparently. Forget the fact that is so expensive to build a home due to inflation, forget the fact our infastructure is uttlerly pathetic with hardly any rail/roads built. It's ok, we're going to find all these construction workers to build Britain and make everyone's dreams come true.
A small island with nearly 70 million people needs to increase density in the existing cities by building taller, but the dinasours we elect have no vision, no class, no brains....Young people want to live in large city centres and there's no reason we cannot encourage dense, quality developments, like Manchester today. We need that throughout the whole country, not bullzozing over the countryside with garbage boxes in dead, souless estates.
Shoe boxes in the sky, tenants will soon get sick of them and I expect there will be a lot of A S B within them
Thinking more about European-style proper buildings with good sized family apartments. These buildings need to be constructed properly with fantastic facilities for children etc. Has to be innovative. We're a much smaller country than France/Spain/Germany/Italy but with a similar population. So we building outwards from city centres will mean swallowing up the green belt and leaving less space to breathe.
Or we could stop importing people.
With a 20 point lead, they can afford to relax some of their more aggressive vote chasing policies and throw some of their target voter groups (e.g. renters) under the bus.
But one thing is for sure, they won't reverse any of the stuff the Tories have foisted upon us in the last decade. They might reverse their plan to scrap Section 21, fine, but they will only add more licencing, more costs etc. For most of us landlords, the numbers either don't stack up or barely stack up right now. That will still be the case moving forward.
Generation Rent, Shelter etc will carry on campaigning aggressively against the "wicked Labour lot". If (when?) Starmer is overthrown as leader, they are more likely to get more of what they want.
It's going to be a very rocky ride as a landlord in the next 5 years!
Made a point about this the other day, Labour gone extremely quiet on PRS in fact so much so it was obvious another U Turn had happened. Raynor has been silent since the blow up from renting to her brother.
They have also seen the direction of travel with landlords selling up faster than inflatable rubber buses can cross the channel. So they will quietly incentivise landlords to stay in PRS, bang the drum loudly for FTBers and then claim they have fixed the housing crisis.
The real losers in all this are Shelter and Generation Rent.
Anything that annoys those nutters must be positive
Shelter and GenRANT has caused a lot of havoc in bringing down the PRS, they need to be abolished unless they do proper work in providing homes for the homeless with their donations. Just sitting at their laptops, having coffees and sending off communications to media, landlord today is just bringing more homelessness.
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