Michael Gove has set out his vision for reforming the housing market while warning that young people could abandon democracy if they can’t get on the housing ladder.
The Levelling Up Secretary is set to announce that planning laws will be relaxed to allow commercial buildings such as shops and offices to be turned into new homes without the need to seek planning permission.
Other proposals include a mortgage guarantee scheme to help first-time buyers that would require only a 1 per cent deposit as part of a wider reform of the mortgage market.
Cuts to stamp duty are also reportedly being considered, with a number of options being drawn up and costed by Number 10.
Mr Gove has also indicated that he aims to change the rules on building on brownfield land – previously developed land that isn’t currently being used – to boost housebuilding in the UK’s 20 largest cities such as Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, he said “nimby” councils would not be able to stand in the way of a developer hoping to convert a brownfield site, and that the new law changes would mean planning permission was automatically granted for brownfield sites.
He also told the paper that young people could become disengaged from politics if they struggled to buy a home.
“It’s a barrier to young people feeling that democracy and capitalism are working for them,” he said.
“It’s simply harder for us to make that case if people who’ve got broadly small ‘c’ conservative values, or actually no particular political agenda at all, feel that they’re being shut out.”
“If people think that markets are rigged and a democracy isn’t listening to them, then you get — and this is the worrying thing to me — an increasing number of young people saying, ‘I don’t believe in democracy, I don’t believe in markets’.”
But Labour’s deputy leader and shadow housing secretary Angela Rayner said that Mr Gove’s plans were a rehash of old ideas.
“The public will have lost count on how many times this Tory government has re-announced this policy,” she said.
“Yet since the Tories came to power, the number of new homes approved on brownfield sites has halved.
“Labour will get Britain building again: We’ll reform the planning system and deliver 1.5 million homes – to boost the economy and help working people onto the housing ladder.”
