Introduce a “right to shelter”, which makes access to shelter a basic right for any resident of the UK. The Government will have a duty to ensure that every resident has somewhere to live, independent of their financial circumstances.
Residential properties that have been empty for more than 12 months will automatically attract a 100% increase in council tax.
A landlord of a property that has been unoccupied for 12 months or more can, once the property has been occupied for 12 months or more, claim a 6 month rebate on the council tax paid before the property was occupied.
Government-backed lending schemes will be offered to landlords with unoccupied residential properties that require refurbishment or repair in order to get them back into use.
With fewer people able to afford to buy, many are renting. We will carry out a public review, taking evidence from all relevant parties, into the private rented housing sector to look at;
Replace council tax with a Land Value Tax as detailed in Economy 5.1.
Repeal the size criteria for housing benefit (commonly known as the “Bedroom Tax”), which punishes housing benefit claimants for having spare rooms when in many cases smaller properties are not available for them to move into.
If a privately run housing association seeks to sell properties because they are unprofitable, we believe that the local authority should be able to buy the houses at a preferential rate. The local authority would then use these properties as council houses. We believe that this will help ease the waiting time for council houses, providing security for many families across the country.
We would encourage the creation of housing co-operatives by those who own their own apartment(s)/flat(s)/house(s). Housing co-operatives allow the value of direct democracy to (literally) hit home, allow tenants to escape landlord exploitation, and result in the maximisation of available living space.