Housing in the 2017 Westminster manifestos

With the 2017 Westminster election just days away, we’ve taken a look at the housing content of the main parties’ manifestos.

Alliance

• Support independent housing advice
• Pay housing benefit directly to landlords
• Improve regulation of the PRS, focusing on reducing fees, improving standards and increasing security of tenure
• Regulate letting agencies
• Examine the role of DHPs for people at risk of eviction due to Housing Benefit cuts
• Continue to avoid the bedroom tax
• Seek a derogation of the reclassification of housing associations as “public bodies”
• Aim to end homelessness, and enable multi-agency working to this end
• Ensure any reform of social housing does not jeopardise fairness, quality or equality of access
• Provide funding to support sheltered and supported accommodation
• Aim to have no families with young children housed in high-rise social housing
• Work with housing providers to ensure safe, identifiable and available homes for refugees
• Examine the feasibility of a Preventing Possession Fund for home-owners at risk of repossession
• Adopt a positive approach to homeless assessments, for people at risk of repossession
• Provide independent advice for people in mortgage and rent arrears, including emergency court representation
• Strengthen pre-action protocols for mortgage and social rent arrears

Green Party

• Abolish the bedroom tax
• Freeze the Right to Buy scheme
• Protect the supported housing budget
• Reform the PRS by introducing longer tenancy agreements and inflation-based rent controls
• Ban discriminatory letting practices where landlords refuse to accept Housing Benefit claimants, students and those with pets
• Bring Housing Benefit in line with average market rents

SDLP

• Work to place a duty of co-operation on statutory agencies, in order to reduce homelessness
• Support access to a good quality, secure and affordable home as a fundamental right

TUV

• Establish an independent Housing Regulator, with the responsibility to (inter alia) set social rents
• Legislation to help landlords deal with antisocial tenants
• Encouraging shared ownership where this is appropriate to ensure owner-occupation