Labour confirms ‘comprehensive mortgage guarantee’ in manifesto

The Labour Party has stated that it will introduce a "permanent, comprehensive mortgage guarantee", should it be elected to power on 4 July.

As part of its manifesto, the party has said if it wins the General Election, it will work with local authorities to give first-time buyers the first change to buy homes.

It added that this policy will "end the farce of entire developments being sold off to international investors before houses are even built".

The mortgage guarantee was unveiled by the Party last week. It will continue the scheme that was introduced by the Conservatives in 2021, which sees the Government act as guarantor for party of a home loan, in order to encourage lenders to offer low deposits.

Furthermore, Labour has committed to building 1.5 million new homes over the next Parliament, while aiming to build at least 150,000 affordable homes per year, with a focus on social housing and council homes.

Chief executive officer at Just Mortgages, John Phillips, said: "Given the Government's history of failing to meet housebuilding figures, it is encouraging to see Labour reinstate the mandatory house-building targets, it will be interesting to see how they implement “bulldozing” through planning rules to achieve this.

"While Labour appears committed to improving supply, there appear to be few practical steps to help first-time buyers get on the property ladder. Compared to the Conservatives’ reintroduction of the Help to Buy scheme or their pledge to abolish stamp duty, there seem to be few stimulants for affordability.

"Labour’s clear housing focus is on renters and supply, but questions remain about affordability and whether or not these pledges can stem the bleeding in the spluttering housing sector."

Labour also has confirmed plans to abolish Section 21 no fault evictions, in a move to protect "private renters being exploited and discriminated against", while empowering them to "challenge unreasonable rate increases".

Deputy research director at the Social Market Foundation, Jamie Gollings, added: "Labour seemed primed to take action to ban no-fault evictions early in the next parliament, if they win. This, alongside banning new leasehold flats and preventing extortionate ground rents and service charges will be welcome news for private renters. They have pledged to ‘empower renters’ to challenge severe rent hikes, although not specified how.

"As SMF has previously urged, it should look to do so by giving renters more automatic prompting when they face onerous rent increases, and reforming the dispute mechanism to tilt it in renters’ favour to remove the risk of rents going up even faster after a dispute settlement.”

"Labour’s plans on cheaper rental housing also lacks specifics. It wants stock to increase at a rate not seen for a generation, but there are no figures to test that by. There are no big promises here, and whilst right to buy discounts will be reviewed, and protections on existing social stock from right to buy will be ‘increased’, it seems that particular Thatcherite legacy will survive."



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