Property Developers Gave Tories £891,000 In First Quarter Of 2021

 Labour has accused the Conservative party of “selling out communities to pay back developers” after figures revealed that 13% of the Tories’ recent donations came from property tycoons and companies. Labour’s analysis of declarations released by the Electoral Commission show the firms gave £891,984 to Tory central office and eight local associations – a sizeable chunk of the £6,418,295 the party reported receiving in the first three months of 2021. It comes as the government prepares to launch sweeping changes to the planning system that Labour says will remove communities’ right to object to inappropriate individual developments in their area. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/11/property-developers-gave-tories-891000-in-first-quarter-of-2021

Homeless Families ‘Could Save For Mortgage Deposits’

The Conservative mayoral candidate for City Hall has said many of the capital’s 62,000 homeless households in temporary accommodation could save for a mortgage deposit and buy a shared ownership home. Shaun Bailey defended his plans to use housing budgets to build a higher proportion of shared ownership homes – where residents buy a share and rent the remainder – than Sadiq Khan. Mr Bailey has promised to deliver 100,000 affordable homes with his £4bn housing budget if he wins the election in April, with a large proportion of them shared ownership. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/homeless-families-could-save-for-mortgage-deposits-says-conservative-candidate-for-london-mayor-69156?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Tory Councillors In Revolt Over Plans To Accelerate Housebuilding

A growing rebellion among Conservative councillors is threatening government plans to accelerate housebuilding in England with six out of 10 believing reforms will make planning less democratic. A survey across Tory heartlands has revealed party representatives are baulking at ministers’ plans to sharply increase housing targets in electoral strongholds like Hampshire and Surrey and are rejecting attempts to cut planning committees out of routine decision-making. Conservative leaders in councils are becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to the plans which they fear could result in countryside being concreted over for housing and core voters deserting them in disgust. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/27/tory-councillors-in-revolt-over-plans-to-accelerate-housebuilding 

Desmond Told Johnson Of His Housing Scheme Plans During Lunch In 2010

Boris Johnson has been drawn into the planning row that has embroiled his Housing Secretary after it emerged that Richard Desmond discussed the property scheme with the Prime Minister over lunch, when he was London mayor. Mr Desmond, a Conservative Party donor, hosted the lunch on 25 May 2010 in the boardroom of his firm Northern & Shell’s headquarters in London. He took the opportunity to raise his initial £500m plans for the Westferry printworks in East London with Mr Johnson while he was mayor and had oversight of major planning decisions in the capital. Read more on inews.

https://inews.co.uk/news/richard-desmond-boris-johnson-westferry-printworks-robert-jenrick-lunch-458004

Developers PM Backed When London Mayor Give Almost £1m To Tories

Property developers connected to major construction projects approved by Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London have donated almost £1m to the Conservative party over the past year. Analysis of public records shows a significant cash injection from property tycoons linked to developments, including blocks of luxury flats with no affordable housing, which were signed off by Johnson and his deputy, Sir Edward Lister, who oversaw planning. Richard Desmond, the former owner of the Daily Express, is among the donors, along with the billionaire Reuben family and the Mayfair-based property firm Delancey owned by Eton-educated Jamie Ritblat. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/28/revealed-developers-backed-by-boris-johnson-when-london-mayor-donate-almost-1m-to-tories

Jenrick Pushed MHCLG Staff To Fast-Track Westferry Decision

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick ignored advice from government officials and was “insistent” on pushing through planning approval for the Westferry Printworks scheme before the council introduced new charges, documents reveal. Correspondence released by the government show Mr Jenrick pressured civil servants into fast-tracking a decision on the controversial 1,500-home development to avoid council charges that would have cost the developer – a Conservative Party donor – around £40m. The planning application was approved – against the planning inspector’s recommendation – on 15 January 2020, one day before Tower Hamlets’ Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charge was introduced, saving developer Richard Desmond £40m. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/jenrick-pushed-mhclg-staff-to-fast-track-westferry-printworks-decision-to-avoid-council-charges-documents-reveal-66963

Rough Sleeper Stats Don’t Add Up

A slight fall in rough sleepers still represents a huge increase in numbers since the Conservative Party took power in 2010 – with frontline charities saying the stats don’t add up. Those stats show rough sleeping had fallen by 9% in England since last year to 4,266 people, the second fall in a row according to a single ‘snapshot’ night. But the total is still up 141% since 2010 when just 1,768 were on the streets. And the number of homeless children is at a 13-year high. Overall, there were 4,677 rough sleepers on a single night in 2018, down 74 (2%) from 4,751 in 2017. Read more on the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019

Housing Associations React To Conservative’s Right To Buy Promise With Scepticism

Housing associations have reacted with scepticism to the Conservative Party’s manifesto pledge to push ahead with a policy extending the Voluntary Right to Buy (VRTB) to their tenants if it wins next month’s election. The manifesto promised to “evaluate new pilot areas” following the “successful” Midlands scheme. But the National Housing Federation (NHF) said the pilot will be a success “only if it helps tenants onto the housing ladder without any net loss of social housing”, while housing associations involved in the project pointed to issues with the policy. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/housing-associations-react-to-conservatives-right-to-buy-promise-with-scepticism-64318?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Why The Conservative Manifesto Is A Downgrade To Housing Ambitions

The Conservative Party’s manifesto may well mark the point at which the political arms race in promising ever higher housing numbers ended. The 300,000-homes-a-year target has not been ditched – but the wording is tricksy enough to mean it will not be regarded as a concrete manifesto pledge. While it promises continued progress against this target, it only vaguely says it will reach it by the mid-2020s, which can clearly be read to mean after the end of the next parliament in 2024. The actual pledge is for a million homes in the next parliament. Now, while a million is clearly a lot of homes those in the industry will know it equates to no more than are being built now. Read more on Housing Today.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/comment/why-the-conservative-manifesto-is-a-downgrade-to-housing-ambitions/5102936.article

Conservatives Pledge Extension Of Housing Association Right To Buy Pilot In Manifesto

The Conservative Party has promised to extend the Right to Buy for housing association tenants to further regions of the country in its election manifesto. However, the document neglects to mention plans to offer housing association tenants a ‘shared ownership’ right to buy - suggesting the party may have already gone cold on the idea first announced last month. The manifesto confirms a number of housing policies which had been revealed last week and commits the party to continue with several ongoing housing policies. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/conservatives-pledge-extension-of-housing-association-right-to-buy-pilot-in-manifesto-64274?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Labour And Tories Push Housing Policies

Labour and the Conservatives have set out rival plans to tackle England's housing shortage. Jeremy Corbyn promised the biggest affordable house building programme since the 1960s, including 100,000 new council houses a year by 2024. Boris Johnson announced measures to help first-time buyers and boost private house building, promising a million homes over the next five years. The announcements came ahead of Labour's manifesto launch. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50496700

'Nuisance' Council Tenants 'Should Live In Tents' Says Ashfield Tory Candidate

"Nuisance" council tenants should be forced to live in tents and pick vegetables, a Conservative parliamentary candidate has said. Lee Anderson, who is contesting the marginal Nottinghamshire seat of Ashfield, posted the comments on a video on his Facebook page. The Labour Party said the idea amounted to "forced labour camps" and went "beyond the pale". Mr Anderson declined to comment when approached by the BBC. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

Tories Set To Allow More Homes Through Relaxed Planning Laws

Briefings from the Conservative Party suggest that the party will announce further relaxation in planning regulations aimed at the creation of more homes. Few specifics are set out but the briefing says: “Under the new rules, most house owners can add two more storeys to their buildings without having to make a planning application. The ministers will argue that Britain’s cities have one of the lowest average heights of housing in the Western world, and that building upwards will create a huge amount of living space immediately and builders will no longer need permission to demolish a commercial property and replace it with homes.” Read more on the Estate Agent Today website.

https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2019/9/tories-set-to-allow-more-homes-through-relaxed-planning-laws

Leadership Hopefuls Told Right To Rent Must Be Scrapped

Conservative Party leadership candidates Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are being urged to scrap the controversial Right to Rent scheme. A coalition of organisations made up of the Residential Landlords Association, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and the3million, which represents EU citizens in the UK, have united in calling on both candidates to scrap the policy after the High Court ruled it causes discrimination against British ethnic minorities. Following a Judicial Review of the policy secured by the JCWI and supported by the RLA, the presiding judge concluded that discrimination by landlords was taking place “because of the Scheme.” Read more on the RLA website.

https://news.rla.org.uk/leadership-hopefuls-told-right-to-rent-must-be-scrapped/

Housing A Pawn In Tory Brexit Leadership Scrap

Former Housing Minister Dominic Raab has called for “radical” housing reforms in an attempt to help renters get on the housing ladder and increase the rate of home building. Attacking the Conservative failure to stand up to developers and ensure the construction of enough homes to tackle the housing shortage, Raab advocated a new Help to Buy scheme that would exempt landlords from capital gains tax when they sell their property to existing tenants. The leadership hopeful also identified the following solutions:

·         More government land to be released, with councils given more power to sell sites to smaller developers 

·         Fewer impositions on councils who fail to get enough homes built

·         Scrapping stamp duty on homes worth less than £500,000

Read more on the Politics Home website.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/economy/construction-industry/press-release/national-federation-builders/103251/housing-pawn

Private Tenants See Rents Surge By Almost £10 Billion Since 2010

Private tenants are paying an average of £166 a month more in than in 2010, analysis by the Labour Party has claimed. Rents in England and Wales are up nearly £2,000 a year since 2010 according to the party’s research. Shadow housing secretary John Healey said the figures were evidence of the Conservative Party’s “failure on housing”. Read more on the Belfast Telegraph website.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/private-tenants-see-rents-surge-by-almost-10-billion-since-2010-37211049.html

Will The Tories' Starter Homes Initiative Ever Get Off The Ground?

Is anything ever likely to come of the starter homes initiative? It was launched by George Osborne towards the end of 2014 but there has been little news since, beyond a few stories regarding funding concerns. Meanwhile, the starter homes newsletter, which was getting increasingly infrequent and was only ever a series of adverts for developments (none of which contained starter homes) seems to have dried up, and the dedicated starter homes website simply links back to a generic new homes website, as it did when it was launched. Given the dearth of news about the starter homes scheme, it’s tempting to think that it has been quietly shelved. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/may/09/uk-starter-homes-initiative-theresa-may-target

Tories Drop Two Flagship Housing Policies From Key Strategy Document

Two of the Conservatives’ flagship housing policies have been dropped from a key government document, raising questions about the future of the plans. The new “single departmental plan” published by the CLG does not include a single reference to Starter Homes, which form a central plank of the Government’s commitment to increase home ownership, or of the planned extension of Right to Buy. The document, which forms part of the guidance for civil servants working on housing, is in stark contrast to the previous plan published last year, in which the two policies featured prominently and were mentioned several times as part of the Conservatives’ housing strategy. Read more on the Independent website.

'Fit For Human Habitation' Amendment May Be Reconsidered After London Fire

A proposed amendment to the government's Housing and Planning Bill which suggests landlords are required to make homes 'fit for human habitation' may be reconsidered following the fire at Grenfell Tower. The amendment was tabled by the Labour Party last year, but was defeated by MPs following a vote of 312 to 219. The proposal was also included in Labour's manifesto for the General Election. According to a report on The London Economic website, Parliament's register of interests shows that 72 of the Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment were themselves private landlords. Read more on the Letting Agent Today website.

Looking For House And Home

You can normally get a good feel for changing political priorities by tracking how often the parties refer to particular issues over time. Search for ‘house’ and ‘home’ in the manifestos of the two main parties and in 2001 neither term got much of a look-in. Today references to both are legion. If we quite literally take the parties at their word, whoever forms the next government looks set to give housing the prominence it deserves (and that voters clearly think it should have too). The Conservatives reiterate their 2015 commitment to deliver 1 million homes by 2020 and promise a further half a million by 2022; Labour also sign up to build the magic million. Read more analysis on the Resolution Foundation website.