Election Time & Construction

Wondering what the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems and Greens have said on construction in their manifestos?

With Polling Day less than a month away, each of the major parties have now released their manifestos for the 2024 election. But what does it mean for UK construction?

On housing:

Conservatives

• Building 1.6m homes in England through the next Parliament
• A “new and improved” Help to Buy scheme
• A Renters Reform Bill for “landlords and renters alike”, with court reforms promised to abolish Section 21 evictions
• Fast-tracking brownfield residential developments in cities
• Abolishing nutrient neutrality
• Making the 2022 Stamp Duty threshold permanent

Labour

• Delivering 1.5m new homes in England over the next five years
• Immediately update the National Policy Planning Framework to restore mandatory housing targets
• Fast-tracking approval of urban brownfield sites and prioritising the release of lower quality ‘grey belt’ land
• “Implement solutions” to homes affected by nutrient neutrality- without weakening environmental protections
• Introduce a permanent, comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme for first time buyers
• Immediately abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions

Liberal Democrats

• Increasing building of new homes to 380,000 a year across the UK, including 150,000 social homes a year
• Abolishing residential leaseholds and capping ground rents to a nominal fee
• Immediately banning no-fault evictions, making three-year tenancies the default, and creating a national register of licensed landlords
• Introducing ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ planning permission for developers who refuse to build
• Give local authorities the powers to end Right to Buy

Green Party

• 150,000 new social homes every year
• Ending the individual ‘right to buy’, to keep social homes for local communities in perpetuity
• Introducing rent controls, a new stable rental tenancy and ending no-fault evictions, as well as introducing a tenants right to demand energy efficiency improvements
• Ensure that all new homes meet Passivhaus or equivalent standards and house builders include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes, where appropriate.

On infrastructure:

Conservatives

• Invest £8.3bn to fill potholes and resurface roads
• Committing a further £12bn to Northern Powerhouse rail work between Liverpool and Manchester

Labour

• Merge the NIC and IPA into a single infrastructure body, Nista
• Improvements to rail connectivity in the north of England, fixing five million potholes over the next five years and better preparing communities for extreme weather events
• Bring the railways into public ownership

Liberal Democrats

• Increasing rollout and support for electric vehicles
• Increased devolution to give local authorities power to upgrade local infrastructure

Green Party

• Require all new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local health, transport and other services

On energy:

Conservatives

• Deliver net zero by 2050
• Annual licensing rounds for oil and gas production in the North Sea
• Scale up nuclear power, with two new fleets of Small Modular Reactors and establishing Great British Nuclear
• Invest £1.1bn into the Green Industries Growth Accelerator
• Moratorium on fracking to continue

Labour

• Reaching clean energy by 2030, with net zero to follow
• Bring Hinkley Point C to completion, as well as increasing rollout of small modular reactors (SMR)
• Fracking will be banned and no new coal licenses will be issued, but oil and gas operations in the North Sea will continue
• Nearly £5bn of investment in gigafactories, carbon capture and green hydrogen
• A £6.6bn Warm Homes Plan that will help install energy efficiency upgrades in 5m homes to cut bills

Liberal Democrats

• A ten-year emergency upgrade programme that will make homes warmer and cheaper to heat and ensure that all new homes are zero-carbon
• Invest in renewable power so that 90% of the UK’s electricity is generated from renewables by 2030
• Upgrade the National Grid to meet growing energy demand

Green Party

• Phasing out nuclear energy and stopping all new fossil fuel extraction projects in the UK, with recent fossil fuel licenses issued such as for Rosebank cancelled
• All oil and gas subsidies to be removed
• Introducing a carbon tax on all fossil fuel imports and domestic extraction
• Wind to provide around 70% of the UK’s electricity by 2030
• Investment in energy storage capacity and more efficient electricity distribution

On the economy:

Conservatives

• Promise to cut taxes by £17.2bn by 2030
• Abolish the main rate of National Insurance entirely by the next Parliament
• No raise of corporation tax
• Creating a business rates support package worth £4.3bn over the next five years to support small businesses

Labour

• Raise £8.5bn a year from tax rises and cracking down on avoidance up to 2028/29
• “Securonomics” – a financial approach “that understands sustainable growth relies on a broad base and resilient foundations”
• £7.3bn National Wealth Fund, with a target to attract “three pounds of private investment for every one pound of public investment” in growth and clean energy

Liberal Democrats

• Protecting the independence of the Bank of England and keeping the inflation target of 2%
• Reverse the Conservatives’ tax cuts for big banks and imposing a one-off windfall tax on the super-profits of oil and gas producers and traders
• Cut income tax(“when the public finances allow”) by raising the tax-free personal allowance

Green Party

• £40bn investment per year to deliver the shift to a green economy over the course of the next Parliament