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The Week in Housing: Conservative conference promises, house-buying reforms and Welsh legal case concludes
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The Week in Housing: Conservative conference promises, house-buying reforms and Welsh legal case concludes #UKhousingA weekly round-up of the most important headlines for housing professionals #UKhousingGood afternoon.
Following the Labour Party Conference, the Conservatives replaced red bucket hats with blue hard hats as part of their presentational pitch to the sector this week.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch closed the party’s conference with a promise to abolish stamp duty the next time the party is in power. She said the “housing market is not working as it should” and that the “big barrier that keeps getting in the way” is stamp duty.
Ms Badenoch’s proposal to abolish the tax was immediately welcomed by a major later living provider.
The pledge came after shadow housing secretary James Cleverly said at the conference that current affordable housing targets are so high they “prevent anything from getting built”.
His remarks followed the National Housing Federation stressing the need to protect the provision of new affordable homes, in response to reports that the mayor of London is considering slashing the 35% affordable target for developments in the capital.
The Conservatives also proposed £4bn worth of housing cuts from 2029-30. The party claimed that the savings would be made by ensuring benefits and social housing are reserved for UK nationals.
In an attempt to kick-start the housing market, the Labour government is consulting on house-buying reforms that could introduce mandatory qualifications for estate, letting and managing agents, shave four weeks off the process, and save first-time buyers £710 on average.
It was also announced that a new Forces First scheme will give service families and veterans housing priority on land repurchased by the Ministry of Defence, ahead of the Defence Housing Strategy.
Shared ownership is a much-touted route to homeownership. With that in mind, the Shared Ownership Code has been handed over to the New Homes Quality Board, which will be responsible for its operations, governance and financial stability.
The code was launched in the summer to create a standardised offer and improve customer service and satisfaction. It is also hoped that a more standardised model may help to unlock additional investment in the tenure.
A landmark test case in Wales ended after a bid by tenants to claim rent back from their landlords for not providing electrical safety reports was rejected by the High Court. The long-running legal wrangling could have cost the Welsh sector millions of pounds.
Meanwhile, Community Housing Cymru welcomed the Welsh government’s new 10-year rent and service charge standard, which limits annual social rent increases and makes them dependent on the rate of inflation.
Social landlords in Scotland will be able to independently challenge rulings by the country’s regulator under a new system, after the Housing (Scotland) Bill was voted through by MSPs last week.
New data from the Museum of Homelessness found that a record high of 1,611 people died while homeless in the UK in 2024, and the charity called on the government to follow through on its promises to tackle the crisis.
In Northern Ireland, a serious piece of research examined how childhood trauma is contributing to homelessness, as more than 50,000 people are on the waiting list for social housing.
West Midlands mayor Richard Parker revealed that he will use a £40m fund to deliver 1,000 new social homes, after “cutting red tape” over how the combined authority is able to spend its budget.
There was also an interesting judgment that links healthcare needs to housing provision after a High Court ordered the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to provide a family facing eviction with accommodation near the hospital where their child is being treated.
In appointment news this week, Michael McDonagh will step down from the top job at PA Housing in the first quarter of 2026 after three years in the role, and a later living developer revealed a new chief executive.
You can find Inside Housing’s round-up of top-level housing sector appointments in September 2025 here.
We sat down with Elizabeth Froude, chief executive of Platform, to hear why she is leaving the housing association for England’s biggest for-profit provider.
Finally, after exclusive data revealing the number of solar panels on council homes across the UK was shared with Inside Housing, we mapped out where has the most and fewest.
Have a great weekend.
Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing
Say hello: stephen.delahunty@oceanmedia.co.uk
Editor’s picks – five stories you may have missed:
Debt Trap Nation: how allocation policies are trapping families in temporary accommodation
Green light for £69m retrofit of listed Edinburgh Council housing blocks
Torus records £40m rise in surplus as shared ownership sales income up by nearly a third
Housing support staff at risk of homelessness due to low pay ‘clearly unacceptable’, Senedd told
Unite Students’ rental growth falls by 51% as fewer beds are sold
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