Election focus 2024: policy tracker

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Building’s frequently-updated policy tracker will keep you up to speed on the latest pledges and announcements made by the parties in the run up to polling day

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Updated: 20 June 2024

Keeping track of what the two main parties in England stand for can be a headache these days given the amount of U-turns seen in the past few months.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have rowed back on green pledges that had previously been at the centre of their economic visions.

Housing targets seem to have been kept deliberately vague, future phases of HS2 are all but dead, and there might be some planning reforms in the mix somewhere, although what these will be is anyone’s guess.

As we await the parties’ manifestos now that the 4th July election has been called, we have compiled a list of where the Conservatives and Labour currently stand on six key construction policy areas.

Building will update and expand this list as more details emerge.

Policy area	Conservatives	Labour
Housing	No mandatory housebuilding targets for local authorities 150,000 new homes in Cambridge by 2050 Build 1.6 million homes over the course of the parliament Launch a new Help to Buy scheme to provide first-time buyers with an equity loan of up to 20% towards the cost of a new build home Implement a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ expectation of social housing landlords for anti-social behaviour. They will be expected to evict tenants whose behaviour is disruptive to neighbours and the local community. Renew the affordable homes programme Complete leasehold reform by capping ground rents at £250, reducing them to peppercorn over time Pass a Renters Reform Bill to fully abolish Section 21 and strengthen other grounds for landlords to evict private tenants guilty of anti-social behaviour	Mandatory housebuilding targets for local authorities 1.5 million new homes over a five-year period New towns with a minumum of 40% of affordable housing, using design codes 150,000 social and affordable homes a year A ‘Freedom to Buy’ policy to get 80,000 people on to the housing ladder by making the government’s existing mortgage guarantee scheme permanent A ‘First Dibs’ policy to give local people first refusal on homes in new development Abolish ‘no fault’ evictions in the private rented sector PRS Extend Awaab’s law to the PRS End PRS tenant ‘bidding wars’
Planning	Restrictions on time extension agreements between councils and applicants on planning decisions Performance league tables for time taken to make planning decisions 30 more towns to receive £20m each over the next ten year under levelling up plan Require councils to set aside land for smaller builders them and lift Section 106 burdens on smaller sites Abolish ‘nutrient neutrality’ rules to immediately unlock the building of 100,000 new homes with developers legally required to pay a one-off mitigation fee Retain a “cast-iron commitment to protect the Green Belt” Create locally-led urban development corporations in partnership with the private sector and institutional investors to develop brownfield regeneration sites Amend the law to make it difficult for people to bring judicial reviews against planned projects that don’t have “merit”	Design standards for “gentle urban development. Require combined and mayoral Authorities to strategically plan for housing growth in their areas. Combined authorities to receive new planning powers along with new freedoms and flexibilities to make better use of grant funding Planning passports for developers which meet design standards, allowing easier brownfield development Create new ‘grey belt’ land class for poor quality areas of the green belt with requirement for at least 50% affordable housing Reform planning system for onshore wind to allow more projects to go ahead Hire 300 more planning officers, paid for by increasing stamp duty on homes purchased by non-UK residents by 1% “Tough action” to ensure planning authorities have up-to-date local plans Strengthen presumption in favour of sustainable development
Infrastructure	No northern HS2 leg between Birmingham and Manchester £4.7bn for small projects in the North and Midlands, taken from scrapped HS2 funds Speed up infrastructure projects and reduce costs by allowing quicker changes to consented projects, ensuring national policy statements are regularly updated and ensuring statutory consultees are focused on improving projects in line with clearer objectives.	Independent inquiry into HS2 to look into how future projects can avoid cost overruns Fully committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail Merge the National Infrastructure Commission and Infrastructure and Projects Authority into a new body called National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), which would have new powers. Designate prisons as ‘nationally significant’ projects in an effort to deliver 14,000 additional places by 2030
Skills	Proposed ‘Advanced British Standard’ to replace A levels and T levels with a single qualification An additional 100,000 apprenticeships a year by the end of the next parliament to be funded by scrapping poor quality university courses	Revamped apprenticeship levy to fund specialist training colleges Firms can use up to half of apprenticeships funds to train existing staff or pay for pre-apprenticeship training New law aiming to cut immigration by forcing government departments to draw up skills improvement plans in high migration sectors including construction
Net zero	Exemptions to boiler ban for some households Heat pump grant increase from £5,000 to £7,500	£15bn on green investment a year (£4.7bn of which is new money) Upgrade five million homes to an EPC C rating over the course of the parliament Decarbonise UK power by 2030 under new body, Great British Energy Targets for faster approvals on renewable projects Double onshore wind, triple solar and quadruple offshore wind by 2030

Election focus

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As thoughts turn towards the next general election, the UK is facing some serious problems.

Low growth, flatlining productivity, question marks over net zero funding and capability, skills shortages and a worsening housing crisis all amount to a daunting in-tray for the next government.

This year’s general election therefore has very high stakes for the built environment and the economy as a whole. For this reason,

Building’s election coverage aims to help the industry understand the issues and amplify construction’s voice so that the parties hears it loud and clear.

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