Wondering what the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems have said on construction topics in their manifestos? PBC Today’s roundup gives you the lowdown on 2024 election promises
With Polling Day less than a month away, each of the major parties have now released their manifestos for the 2024 election.
After 14 years, 5 prime ministers, 2 recessions and 1 Brexit, many are predicting a wipeout of Tory candidates. Electoral Calculus has predicted that the Conservatives could lose nearly 300 seats, with Labour securing a landslide larger than the 1997 election results under Tony Blair [as of 13 June 2024].
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
Read more of our coverage of the General Election here and the individual manifestos below:
| Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats | Greens |
