Housing & Land

The UK has had a housing crisis for decades fuelled by chronic undersupply, investors and corporations driving prices up, and credit inflation. The policies to address this are:

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• One home per person ownership cap. Only citizens and permanent residents can own homes. No other legal entities except people and the government may own homes. This includes no corporations, trusts, or overseas buyers.

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• Foreign nationals and corporations not allowed to own empty, unused UK land.

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• Partial property ownership to only be allowed in a 50/50 split between spouses or civil partners, with partial property ownership in this case counting as one home per person. Ownership must be resolved upon dissolution or death.

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• Properties held by non-compliant entities (corporations, trusts, overseas buyers, those with more than 1 home) will have appropriate sell-off deadlines for each legal status. Rising taxes and fines will be applied until the property is sold.

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• End Right to Buy to stop the transfer of taxpayer-funded council housing being sold at a discount. No selling public land to private housing developers.

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• Cap all rental prices to 10% of median wages in the area to make rentals affordable (including social housing) and encourage private landlords to sell. This will be enforced by local authorities with penalties for non-compliance.

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• Local authorities cannot bid more than 3x single median income of the local area (defined down to ward level) when purchasing homes.

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• Streamline planning permission by giving full discretion to planning officers and integrating more automatic approvals/pre-approved designs (commercial to residential conversions, pre-fabricated builds), subject to safety regulations and environmental zoning only.

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• Expand social housing through directly commissioning more building, converting surplus government offices to flats, or acquiring houses that investors and corporate bodies are selling.

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• Land Value Tax with primary residence and agriculture exemptions to end land and property speculation. Increased LVT on land that is approved for planning but isn’t being built on.

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• A rising tax on homes left empty for more than six months, with revenue directed to social housing.

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• Ending new short-term lets and requiring existing short-term lets to be converted back to residential use, with planning to allow for new hotels to be built in areas to match the loss of short-term lets.

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• Give councils powers to compulsorily purchase empty or tenanted (not owner-occupied) residential property for social housing purposes at market value.

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• 50% tax rate on any net rental income (residential and commercial) regardless of income or corporate tax band and 50% CGT on secondary property sales.

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• Ensuring every home and piece of land is assigned to an owner on the land registry.

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• No borrowing against property for spending purposes.

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• Mortgages to be regulated in a way to end credit inflation, increase affordability, and increase accessibility for ordinary homebuyers as per the Banking, Credit, & Mortgages section.

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• Abolish leasehold property and convert existing leasehold property to commonhold.

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• Prioritise first time buyers for mortgages.

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• Implement a scheme allowing owners of empty homes to house a homeless family in exchange for guaranteed rent from local authorities.

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• Minimum energy efficiency and space standards for homes, phased in to avoid delaying construction.