Party also pledges to get major infrastructure projects signed off within 12 months
A Conservative government would launch a “new and improved” version of Help to Buy if the party is re-elected on 4 July.
Launching the party’s manifesto at Silverstone race track today, Rishi Sunak pledged to revive the scheme, which ended in England last year.
Invoking former Tory prime ministers Harold Macmillan and Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister identified the Conservatives as “the party of property owning democracy”.
According to the manifesto, the scheme would allow first-time buyers to get a government equity loan worth up to 20% to buy a new build property, helping them to get a 5% deposit on affordable interest terms.
The scheme would last three years, with developers contributing towards loan costs and no interest on the government loan for the first five years. The Times reports that the scheme would be available for purchases under £400,000.
The manifesto promised to deliver 1.6m new homes in the next parliament “by speeding up planning on brownfield land in our inner cities and by scrapping defective EU laws”.
This would include abolishing nutrient neutrality rules, with developers to be required to pay a one-off mitigation fee so there is no net additional pollution.
The party also pledged to renew the affordable homes programme but did not provide any specifics about what this would entail.
>> See also: Labour pledges to help 80,000 buy a home through ‘permanent’ mortgage guarantee scheme
The Conservatives also pledged to speed up the average time it takes to sign off major infrastructure projects from four years to one.
It said it would reform “outdated EU red tape” to better protect nature while enabling the building of homes, prisons and “new energy schemes”.
It said it would allow quicker changes to consented projects, ensure national policy statements are regularly updated, ensure statutory consultees are focused on improving projects in line with clearer objectives and “end frivolous legal challenges that frustrate infrastructure delivery”. And it said it would amend the law to make it difficult for people to bring judicial reviews that don’t have “merit”.
Sunak also said he would “curb funding to rip off degrees” in order to fund 100,000 apprenticeships for young people
Tax reforms dominated the manifesto, with the Conservatives set to scrap tax on profits made by landlords who sell their properties to tenants.
The party would also indefinitely continue the existing £425,000 threshold before which first time buyers have to pay stamp duty.
However the headline change will be the 2p off national insurance, which is set to be implemented by 2027. For the self-employed, the Tories have committed to abolishing the main rate of NI by the end of the parliament.
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