Under the last Labour Government, house building fell to its lowest peacetime level since the 1920s. Labour’s top-down Regional Strategies and eco-towns built nothing but resentment. Advised by Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, Gordon Brown engineered an economic bubble that resulted in a speculative bust and the biggest budget deficit in our peacetime history.
This Government is clearing up the mess left by Labour. We are working with – not against – local communities to help build more homes, scrapping Regional Strategies and rewarding development via decentralising local government finance – from the New Homes Bonus, to the local retention of business rates to a localised Housing Revenue Account.
We are helping hardworking people onto the housing ladder through Help to Buy and the reinvigorated Right to Buy. Both first time buyers and housing construction have risen to their highest level since 2007, whilst repossessions have plummeted thanks to the lower interest rates from our long-term economic plan.
Housing Minister, Kris Hopkins, announced today that under this Government, the New Homes Bonus has rewarded 550,000 additional homes, including over 93,000 long-term empty properties brought back into use and provision of over 160,000 new affordable homes.
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