After 14 years and five Conservative Prime Ministers (let’s not mention lettuce), the general election on 4th July brought a Labour landslide. Below we look at what Kier Starmer’s Government is promising for Newbridge’s key areas of focus: housing, regeneration and energy transition.
Housing and Regeneration
The housing crisis is a priority of the Labour manifesto, with the party pledging to deliver 1.5 million new homes within the first 5 years of a Labour government (300,000 per annum). It plans to do so with an updated approach to planning, building and support for first-time buyers. They are proposing a ‘brownfield-first’ approach and introduction of the ‘grey belt’ for the use of low-grade land in the greenbelt.
At UKREiiF, Angela Rayner announced the plans to establish new large-scale communities by building new towns with urban extensions and regeneration projects. No bad thing, although we’re struggling to think of a government that did not make commitments along these lines. We wait to see the extent to which these proposals have teeth.
There are signals towards greater devolution with plans to increase planning powers and grant funding available to Combined Authorities. We have seen the growth that this can achieve in areas like the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and look forward to hearing more about these plans in due course.
On affordable housing specifically, some highlights that have caught our eye include:
- Adjust the Affordable Homes Programme to increase delivery from the existing funding and offer support to councils and housing associations, although what support remains to be seen.
- Reevaluate Right to Buy discounts. It is unclear what this means in practice but a reduction in the loss of social housing through Right to Buy is key.
- Introduce ‘Freedom to Buy’: a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme to reduce deposits required from first-time buyers, which aims to bring 80,000 more people on the housing ladder within five years.
Energy transition
Labour’s plans for net zero (or rather the U turns on those plans) were much debated in the run up to the general election. The doubling of vote share and increased number of seats held by the Green Party this year shows the heightened importance of sustainability in parts of the UK and we expect it to have a growing place on the national agenda.
Labour plans to make Britain ‘a clean energy superpower’ by transitioning to an independent net-zero electricity system, aiming to ‘eradicate the risks of reliance on foreign providers’. Widespread renewables investment is planned, with a focus on local power generation to minimise national grid pressures and reducing costs for households.
Highlights on energy transition that have caught our eye:
- Deliver a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030 through investment in renewables, including plans to quadruple offshore wind, as well as developing carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and marine energy technologies.
- Establish Great British Energy with £8.3 billion capitalisation over the next parliament: a company owned by the British public, which will work with local authorities and communities to invest in installing clean energy technology that benefits local people.
- Extend lifetimes of existing nuclear power plants and complete development of new stations.
- Maintain reserve of gas power stations for energy security but issue no new licences for coal or for oil and gas field exploration.
- Ease planning restrictions for on shore wind farms in England.
Despite a manifesto cautious on spending commitments, the key unanswered question is how the new government is going to finance much-needed investment. As has been the case for at least the last 14 years, there is currently a significant amount of private sector capital available but a very limited pipeline of investable opportunities. We look forward to seeing the action that the new government will take to bridge that gap.
