Finding ways to bring back empty homes to the market has been voted most popular policy proposed in the main parties manifestos in this year’s General Election, according to Halifax.
The fifth edition of the Halifax Generation Rent Report, the largest research project in the UK looking into young people attitudes towards housing issues, has analysed the housing policies proposed by the political parties in the rup-up to this year’s General Election.
The aim was to weigh up which proposals would be of most benefit to young people aged 20 to 45.
The results indicate that overall the Conservative policies seem to be most in-tune with the needs of first-time buyers. However, while five of the top nine policies were from the Conservative party, the top rated policy was put forward by the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrat policy proposed increasing supply by giving greater powers to local authorities to tackle empty homes in the form of renovation and subsequent return of the property to the rental or sales markets.
Increasing the supply of housing was the overall mandate given to the incoming government by Generation Rent participants. All pledges to build more homes and to either reserve a proportion of these homes or offer them all to first-time buyers were welcomed by the majority of respondents.
Other popular policies included the Conservative proposals to launch a new Rent to Buy scheme and a new Right to Buy scheme.
As a demand side policy the new Right to Buy scheme has received a mixed reception to date, but more than half (54 per cent) the young people surveyed in the Generation Rent Report thought it would be of benefit to getting more people on the housing ladder.
Craig McKinlay, Mortgages Director at Halifax, commented:
“Housing was a major issue during the General Election campaign and political parties of all hues acknowledged that more needs to be done to help first-time buyers. However, this now needs to translate into concrete plans during the next Parliament. By taking the most beneficial cross party policy positions according to 20-45 year olds, the Generation Rent Report has created the ‘ideal’ policy package.
“Earlier this year the independent Commission on Housing identified that we need to deliver at least 2 million homes by 2025 to meet demand. Getting empty homes back on the market and tackling the shortfall in housebuilding needs to be a political priority and requires a long-term commitment if it’s to address the shortage of supply.”
