UK Edition
Plans for tougher restrictions on foreign buyers to help first-time buyers get on property ladder
Foreign buyers will face tougher restrictions on purchasing British property under plans being worked up by the Treasury in an attempt to help first time buyers.
Policies could be announced within weeks as getting younger Britons on the housing ladder becomes a major part of the Tories autumn political drive.
“There’s an issue in London with a large proportion of new-build flats being purchased off plan by particularly Far Eastern buyers – China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia," a Whitehall source said.
“They are bought when the flats are still under construction, meaning first time buyers don’t get a look in. That is not just in central London, but in the suburbs and other cities such as Manchester.”
Another well-placed source said: “Anyone who has looked at housing knows this is an issue.”
Number 10 and Treasury officials will discuss housing policy this week ahead of Conservative Party conference in late October and the Budget in November.
Other ideas in the running include accelerating the sale of Government-owned land and easing the rules on building on brown-field sites to help boost supply.
Some Whitehall figures also back more borrowing to invest in housing – Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary, has publicly supported the move previously – though the Treasury is concerned about cost.
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, wants her domestic policy agenda to dominate party conference next week after delivering a major Brexit speech in Florence.
Sources involved in the preparations said housing is set to become a big theme of the coming weeks as the Tories look to win back younger voters who backed Jeremy Corbyn in June.
Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, told Tory MPs at the influential 1922 backbench committee recently that he wanted to address the difficulty faced by first-time buyers.
He called for ideas to be submitted for the November Budget and – alongside student debt – identified it as an area the Tories must tackle to win back young voters.
An ally of the Chancellor said he fears people in their twenties and thirties are being “left behind economically” and therefore “punished” the Tories, as the governing party, at the election.
Higher home ownership tends to lead to more support for the Conservatives, according to previous trends – giving the first-time buyer drive a clear political dimension.
Ministers have already announced “accelerated” plans for selling off Government land for housing, but some Tories feel that more could be done.
Land around railways, owned by the Ministry of Defence or part of the NHS estate are especially being considered by Treasury figures.
The developments come as the Conservative launch an attack on a little-known Labour policy announced in its housing manifesto during the election.
Labour pledged to restore Empty Dwelling Management Orders – a controversial policy introduced by New Labour in 2006 but watered down by the Tories – to its full strength.
The change would empower councils to take over private homes that have been left empty for six months, rather than two years.
Luke Hall, the Tory MP for Thornbury and Yate, said: “Conservatives have cut the number of empty homes by working sensitively with councils to get such homes back into use, focusing action against boarded-up and blighted properties.
“But the return of John Prescott's bullying powers would mean town hall bureaucrats seizing everyday homes in streets across the country, including those of recently deceased.
“Labour's hard-left agenda would entail widespread state confiscation of private property, targeting the elderly and the families. Labour are not fit to govern - and it's hard-working families who would pay the price."