The opinion polls all point to the increasing likelihood of a hung parliament, with the Lib Dems holding the balance of power. But what chance do their eye-catching housing pledges - £1.16 billion to bring 250,000 empty homes back into use and ‘freeing’ councils from public sector borrowing requirements - have of being priorities in a power-broking deal? A spokesperson says the empty properties plan is ‘central’ to Nick Clegg’s plans. The fact that it is the party’s highest new spending commitment year lends credence to this claim.
As ever, the election promises of the two main parties are where most attention must be paid. Yet, there is little new on housing from either the Labour Party or the Conservatives as both played their hands well ahead of this week’s manifesto launches.
Labour’s manifesto confirms its belated backing for local authorities to return to the development fray by freeing them from the hated housing revenue account to build up to 10,000 homes a year by 2014/15.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives, despite a barrage of criticism, are sticking to their plan to abolish regional housing targets and instead provide people with cash incentives to back local development. It is undeniable that the current approach of ploughing in public subsidy and crossing our collective fingers that private house builders will deliver the rest is not working. Here at least is a clear choice.
On sustainability, it seems all three parties are committed to kick-starting the retrofitting of existing homes. Their means to do this might differ but the importance to the housing world of cross-party support for this £500 billion challenge cannot be underestimated in a time of declining public spending.
Perhaps the best test of which party really cares about investing in the role of housing professionals is the number of mentions of the words ‘housing’ and ‘homes’ in the respective manifestos. Here are the results: Labour 39; Conservatives 18; Liberal Democrats 28.
The choice, as they say, is yours.
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