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