Conservative manifesto pledges to scrap nutrient neutrality rules

The Conservative party has promised to abolish legacy EU “nutrient neutrality” rules to unlock 100,000 homes with local consent, as part of its manifesto pledge to deliver 1.6m homes in England in the next parliament. Developers would be legally required to pay a one-off mitigation fee to ensure there is no net additional pollution. The Tories also vowed to fast-track development on brownfield sites in its manifesto. Part of that would involve planning for more homes on underused industrial land. It proposes to raise density levels in inner London and to regenerate major sites in London such as Euston, Old Oak Common and Thamesmead. Prime minster Rishi Sunak’s manifesto also advocated the creation of locally-led development corporations in partnership with the private sector and institutional investors, and to support regeneration schemes in Leeds, Liverpool, York and Cambridge. Restoring Help to Buy The Tories vowed to scrap stamp duty for the majority of first-time buyers by making permanent the increase to the threshold to £425,000, from £300,000. The party would also revive the Help to Buy scheme, to offer first-time buyers an equity loan of up to 20% towards the cost of a new-build home. A two-year temporary relief on capital gains tax would also be introduced for landlords selling to their existing tenants. Other pledges included a £20m endowment fund for 105 towns in the UK for levelling up projects, extending its community ownership fund for another three years and creating more freeports and business rates retention zones. Councils would be required to set aside land for smaller builders and lift Section 106 requirements on smaller sites.  The manifesto additionally promised changes to planning laws to “bring back local market days and regenerate defunct shopping centres”, and to “ease the burden of business rates for high street, leisure and hospitality businesses by increasing the multiplier on distribution warehouses that support online shopping over time”. Industry reactions Industry figures welcomed the commitment to return to the Help to Buy model, but expressed disappointment that the manifesto’s policies were not more ambitious. Paul Rickard, managing director of Pocket Living, said: “While we obviously welcome the commitment to re-introducing a Help to Buy scheme, increasing the stamp duty threshold to £425,000 for first-time buyers and delivering 1.6m new homes, we were hoping for a suite of bolder and more ambitious policies to tackle the root cause of the housing crisis – the shortage of supply. “Our planning system needs urgent intervention and resourcing, especially with regards to streamlining the process for unlocking small brownfield sites. Our SME housebuilders have never been fewer in number than they are today. “Our ability to build new homes and the supporting infrastructure has never been under greater strain. The next government, whichever party it is comprised of, needs to work with the industry to urgently address these issues with a serious package of bold, radical and ambitious policies backed by the drive to see them through.” Justin Young, chief executive of the RICS, said: “While it’s encouraging to see the Conservatives committing themselves to supporting small builders, this will not address the quagmire of laws that make up Britain’s restrictive and politically permeated planning system. “We welcome any initiative that helps first-time buyers, but demand-side solutions must be combined with workable supply-side solutions. To begin improving affordability levels the UK must build more housing; there is currently a shortfall of 4.3m homes in the UK by some estimates [Centre for Cities study]. “While a stamp duty cut would help in the short-term by enabling more buyers onto the first rung of the property ladder, it’s vital that we learn lessons from the past and introduce policies that address the plethora of structural issues that exist within house building. Supply must be addressed across all tenures, otherwise with Help to Buy 2.0 we risk a repeat of the negatives of the first scheme. While it did provide support for first time buyers, and gave confidence to housebuilders, it also inflated house prices across England, left thousands of buyers at risk of negative equity and failed to deliver good value for money for the taxpayer.” Simon McWhirter, deputy chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, said the manifesto “fails to deliver on the detailed framework for how we move towards a better future for Britain”. “The manifesto doesn’t go anywhere far enough on addressing the linked climate, nature and cost-of-living crises we are facing,” he said. Alex Probyn, president of property tax at Altus Group, noted the pledge to increase the warehouse multiplier was “eye-catching” but “relatively insignificant”. Altus estimated there are 1,520 large distribution warehouses in England paying £1.3bn in the business rates tax during this financial year. “The level of support for the high street ultimately will depend upon the level of the supplement levied on online retailers, but a 2p supplement on the current standard multiplier of 54.6p, would only raise about £50m to redistribute,” said Probyn. Photo © NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock