The main parties on Rural Communities

The main parties have now launched their manifestos ahead of the General Election on 7th May. We bring you the main points from each one relating to a key part of our own manifesto - rural communities and housing. Read our own manifesto chapter on rural communities here.


Conservative

• Build 200,000 new Starter Homes exclusively for first time buyers


• Extend the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme to 2020 and introduce a new Help to Buy ISA to support people saving for a deposit


• Ensure local people have more control over planning and protect the Green Belt


• Support locally-led garden cities and towns where communities want them such as Ebbsfleet and Bicester


• Establish Coastal Communities Fund to help boost skills and create jobs in seaside areas


• Build 1,400 new flood defences to protect 300,000 homes


• Allow councils to tackle small- scale fly-tipping through Fixed Penalties rather than costly prosecutions

Green

• Scrap the Government's Help to Buy Scheme


• Reduce VAT on housing renovation and repair work to 5%


• Increase the social housing budget from £1.5 to £6 billion to provide 500,000 social rented homes


• Reform private rented sector including the introduction of five-year fixed term tenancy agreements

Labour

• Introduce greater transparency in the land market and give councils new 'use it or lose it' powers to encourage developers to build as soon as planning consent is granted


• Build a new generation of garden cities


• Prioritise investment in flood prevention


• Promote access to green spaces in local planning

Lib Dem

• Build at least 10 new garden cities including five major settlements along a new railway line between Oxford and Cambridge


• Review compulsory purchase legislation and pilot techniques for capturing the increase in land values from the granting of planning consent for garden cities


• Enable councils to levy up to 200% Council Tax on second homes


• Introduce Nature Act with 'fuller' Right to Roam legislation and a new designation of National Nature Park to protect up to 1 million acres of accessible green space


• Set up a commission to research back-to-nature flood prevention schemes and introduce high standards for flood resilience for buildings and infrastructure in flood risk areas


• Increase the rate of house building to 300,000 a year

UKIP

• Replace the National Planning Policy Framework and introduce new national planning guidelines prioritising brownfield sites for housing development and strengthening protection of the Green Belt


• Aim to build 1 million homes on brownfield sites by 2025


• Not allow housing on prime agricultural land


• Remove government imposed targets on councils for house building


• Promote smaller 6-12 unit developments in rural areas to extend existing villages


• Remove VAT on repair work to listed buildings