{"id":140140,"date":"2022-07-28T14:18:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T13:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=140140"},"modified":"2022-07-28T14:18:42","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T13:18:42","slug":"conservative-party-leadership-contest-housing-and-the-cost-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/conservative-party-leadership-contest-housing-and-the-cost-of-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative Party leadership contest: Housing and the cost of living"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Conservative leadership race heats up, with MPs from every side of the political divide making their allegiances and opinions known, here is an overview of candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss on housing and the cost of living.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rishi Sunak on the cost of living<\/h3>\n

Rishi Sunak has been accused of making a \u2018screeching U-turn\u2019 on tax cuts as he has vowed to scrap VAT on energy bills for a year if he becomes Prime Minister. Under his plan, the 5% rate on household energy would be scrapped for one year from October, if the price cap on bills rises above \u00a33,000 for the typical household. Sunak said the \u2018temporary and targeted\u2019 measure would save average households \u00a3160 a year and would ensure people get \u2018the support they need\u2019, while also \u2018bearing down on price pressures\u2019.<\/p>\n

Sunak had previously been resisting calls for immediate tax cuts, instead saying the nation needs \u2018honesty and responsibility, not fairy tales\u2019. He had pledged to service public debt and hold off on tax cuts until inflation is under control, presenting his position as \u2018common-sense Thatcherism\u2019. He has also committed to taking a \u2018tough stance\u2019 towards public sector pay and the need to avoid wage price spiral.<\/p>\n

The former Chancellor has said he would continue increasing corporation tax from 19% to 25% next year, as well as creating incentives for businesses to invest through relaxing financial regulations and scrapping the Apprenticeship Levy.<\/p>\n

Rishi Sunak on housing<\/h3>\n

Sunak has pledged to speed up building in cities and on brownfield sites and crack down on \u2018landbanking\u2019 by big developers. He has suggested he wants to see Government funding for affordable housing scaled back and more incentives put in place for developers.<\/p>\n

During the environment hustings, Sunak was slightly more vocal about his green policy intentions. He said he would keep the 2050 net zero targets and would focus on improving the energy efficiency of the country\u2019s housing stock, saying the UK has \u2018the worst houses in Europe\u2019. He pledged to look at launching a new energy efficiency scheme \u2013 hopefully more successful than the Green Homes Grant launched in 2020. He said the new scheme would concentrate on measures such as smart heating controls and cavity wall insulation.<\/p>\n

Sunak has signed up to the Northern Research Group\u2019s (NRG) pledges, which include a commitment to a new Minister for the North, more devolution, a levelling-up \u2018formula\u2019 to ensure \u2018left behind\u2019 places get the Government funding they need, and two new vocational colleges \u2013 \u2018the vocational equivalent of Oxford and Cambridge\u2019, dubbed \u2018Voxbridge\u2019. He has also vowed to scrap EU Solvency II rules to encourage investment into infrastructure.<\/p>\n

After just one month in the role of Chancellor, Sunak delivered his first Spring Budget in March 2020, during which he announced a \u00a312bn Affordable Homes Programme. It was welcomed by the sector as one of the largest settlements in years. A few weeks later, he announced a temporary change to Local Housing Allowance rates to cover the cheapest third of rents during the pandemic. He also decided to introduce a \u00a320 a week uplift to Universal Credit.<\/p>\n

During Robert Jenrick\u2019s time as Housing Secretary (between 2019 and 2021), Sunak signed off on the \u00a35bn Building Safety Fund, however, he later said the Treasury was unwilling to increase funding despite the significant bills being handed out to leaseholders. Sunak told Jenrick\u2019s successor Michael Gove that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities would have to step in and use their own budget if developers refused to pay for building safety remediation, rather than asking for more from the Treasury.<\/p>\n

Liz Truss on the cost of living<\/h3>\n

Liz Truss has committed to \u00a330bn of tax cuts and has said she would start implementing them \u2018from day one\u2019. She said she would cancel the planned 6% rise in corporation tax and during Monday night\u2019s debate criticised Sunak\u2019s plans to increase business taxes, arguing they would push the country into a recession.<\/p>\n

Truss has also promised to cancel the National Insurance increase, which came into force in April this year. She said she would immediately bring in an emergency budget, arguing that it would alleviate the cost of living crisis. Truss has also pledged to hold a review of Government spending and believes the Government can and should borrow more. She has vowed to take a \u2018tough stance\u2019 on public sector pay and has highlighted the need to avoid wage price spiral. She said she would lift green levies on energy bills for two years.<\/p>\n

Liz Truss on housing<\/h3>\n

The Foreign Secretary has pledged to amend the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to scrap centralised \u2018Stalinist\u2019 housing targets and would make it simpler for developers to build on brownfield land in \u2018opportunity areas\u2019 by focusing on deregulation and tax incentives. These areas would be low tax zones and would have lower businesses rates and fewer planning restrictions in the aim of encouraging investment and development. She vowed to introduce zones in the North of England. As has Sunak, Truss has signed up to NRG pledges.<\/p>\n

She is generally very pro-development, as can be seen in a video posted in 2019 in which she speaks about the need to build more homes. The same year she told the Mail on Sunday that one million homes should be built on the green belt around London and that villages should be allowed to expand by four or five houses a year without having to go through planning. She thinks the UK should \u2018build up more\u2019 in cities and has previously expressed her support for zonal planning \u2013 a system that would see permission granted automatically on sites that have been earmarked for development.<\/p>\n

On net zero, Truss has said she would maintain the 2050 targets and would introduce a \u2018temporary moratorium\u2019 on green energy levies \u2018to enable businesses and industry to thrive while looking at the best way of delivering net zero\u2019. Green levies are an environmental charge added to energy bills, dubbed a \u2018social and environmental obligation\u2019 by Ofgem. The money goes towards supporting the installation of energy efficiency measures in lower-income or vulnerable households.<\/p>\n

For more news from the political and public affairs sector, sign up to Vuelio\u2019s Friday newsletter\u00a0Point of Order<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Conservative leadership race heats up in the UK, here is an overview of candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss on housing and the cost of living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":140153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7383,7271],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140140"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140157,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140140\/revisions\/140157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}