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Labour pledges ‘Living Rent’ homes as part of affordable programme
A Labour government would fund new ‘Living Rent’ homes, capped at a third of local incomes, as part of its pledge to build 100,000 affordable homes a year.
Inside Housing can exclusively reveal the party’s plans to take London mayor Sadiq Khan’s ’Living Rent’ product national if it wins next week’s poll.
The party is planning a major expansion of grant funding for new social rented homes, as well as ownership tenures such as shared ownership, with ‘Living Rent’ designed as its mid-market product.
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Its manifesto commits to building 100,000 “genuinely affordable” homes a year by the end of the parliament, a softening of leader Jeremy Corbyn’s often-repeated pledge to deliver 500,000 council homes in a single term.
The Living Rent homes would be set according to average incomes by local authority area and would result in a rent of, for example, £1,080 per month in Oxford for a two-bed property against a market rate of £1,300.
The party said the homes would be aimed at households on ordinary incomes renting privately but seeking to buy, with priority given to those with a local connection.
Local authorities would be permitted to prioritise certain groups based on specific local pressures, such as teachers, NHS workers or tradespeople.
Labour said the homes would be built by “councils and housing associations, part-funded where necessary by grant funding from the Homes and Communities Agency”. It said they could also be built by private developers through planning obligations.
While Mr Khan’s Living Rent product is officially rent to buy - a five year tenancy after which the tenant is expected to purchase - this is not the case with the main Labour party’s pledge. Sources said Mr Khan had faced pressure from central government to make his version a home ownership product.
LABOUR HOUSING POLICY AT A GLANCE
- Invest to build more than one million new homes
- Pledge to be building “at least 100,000 council and housing association homes a year for genuinely affordable rent or sale” by 2022
- Establish a new “Department of Housing” tasked with improving the “number, standards and affordability of homes”
- Overhaul the Homes and Communities Agency and give new powers to councils to “build the homes local communities need”
- Prioritise building on brownfield sites
- Protect the green belt
- Start work on a new generation of new towns
- Make housebuilding a priority through a new “national transformation fund” as part of a joined-up industrial and skills strategy
- Scrap the bedroom tax
- Suspend the Right to Buy unless councils can prove they have a plan to replace homes on a like-for-like basis
- Insulate more homes
- Consult on new minimum space standards and on standards for zero carbon homes
- Ensure that Local Plans “address the need for older people’s housing”, ensuring downsizing options are available
- Keep the Land Registry in public hands
- Guarantee Help to Buy funding until 2027
- Give local people buying their first home “first dibs” on new homes built in their area
- Give leaseholders “security from rip-off ground rents” and end the routine use of leasehold houses in new developments
- Make three-year tenancies the norm, with rent rises capped in line with inflation
- Legislate to ban letting agency fees
- Give renters new consumer rights
- Introduce new standards to ensure properties are “fit for human habitation”
- Reverse the decision to abolish housing benefit for 18 to 21-year-olds
- Make 4,000 extra homes available for people with a history of rough sleeping
- Safeguard homelessness hostels and supported housing from cuts to housing benefit
- “Reform and redesign” Universal Credit
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Analysis released by the party alongside the pledge shows that 2.4 million private renters in England currently pay more than a third of their income in rent, with more than a million of them in London and the South East.
John Healey, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for housing, said: “Rather than build more affordable homes, Conservative ministers have simply branded more homes ‘affordable’.
“We will build new Living Rent homes priced to be affordable to local people on ordinary incomes so they can save more for a deposit to buy that special first home.”
Labour has not said what portion of the 100,000 units would be for Living Rent.
While the party trails in overall polls, it has widened its lead on housing to 12 percentage points according to Yougov, with 34% of people selecting the party as strongest on housing compared to 22% selecting the Conservatives
