Ping! An email lands in Steerpike’s inbox. It’s a press release about Labour’s new homes pledge, touted with much fanfare in Liverpool last week. ‘Labour will jump start planning’ it declares, ‘to build 1.5 million homes and save the dream of homeownership.’ The ‘transformational package of reforms’ includes the ‘next generation of “new towns”, new communities with beautiful homes, green spaces, reliable transport links and bustling high streets.’ All very motherhood and apple pie.
But according to an accompanying document, the new towns are not just about homeownership. Labour claim that their ‘next generation of new towns’ will be ‘attractive investment products, generating stable and diverse income streams; sales of freeholds, rental income from housing, residential and commercial ground rents and public transport fares.’ However, the recently-enacted Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act put an end to ground rents for most new long residential leasehold properties in England and Wales on 30 June 2022 and from 1 April 2023 for leases of retirement homes.
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