Tory MPs challenge Theresa May to adopt radical housing agenda in bid for younger voters’ support

Nearly a dozen Tory MPs will this week challenge Theresa May to pay greater attention to the UK’s housing crisis, and demand she adopt a radical agenda to win voters’ support.

In what they believe could be the party’s most enticing offering to voters under 40, they will call on Ms May to reaffirm what she previously called the number one priority of her domestic agenda.

At a meeting pencilled in for Wednesday, 10 Conservative MPs will present ideas including: paying council tax instead of small business rates on second homes rented out as holiday homes; a new “rent to buy” scheme; and a self-build initiative.

The Independent revealed recently that the government’s Help to Buy scheme was being used by people on relatively high incomes.

Those set to attend the meeting this week include Scott Mann, Sarah Wollaston, Gary Streeter and Richard Bacon.

In a sign of frustration at the current offering from the Conservatives, one of the MPs who will be at the meeting, Scott Mann, told The Independent: “Successive governments have been unable and in some cases unwilling to truly address the biggest challenge facing under-40s in the UK: being able to buy a home that is genuinely affordable.

“Housing supply has not been kept up with demand for well over two decades and now it is time for a comprehensive overhaul of a broken market.

“We need to come up with real solutions, not only because it is the right thing to do but also because it is a defining issue that is holding back Conservative support in the under-40s voters.”

While Mr Mann said he was grateful for the prime minister to offer her time for an issue she “cares deeply about”, he continued: “Brexit has consumed a considerable amount of the parliamentary time but as the negotiations progress, it is now right for the prime minister’s to bring her number one domestic agenda back centre stage.

“When she stood on the steps on 10 Downing Street and said, ‘I know there are people who the country isn’t working for’, I believe she was specifically talking about those individuals who have been marginalised and excluded from a housing market that no longer works for all.”

It follows Ms May’s keynote speech on housing earlier this year in which she said young people without family wealth are “right to be angry” about their inability to get onto the property ladder.

She also vowed to get tough with property developers who sit on planning permissions, suggesting they could be penalised in future bids, as she told them to “do your duty to Britain”.

But before the speech a former housing minister and the Tory head of the Local Government Association (LGA) both warned the “nonsense will go on and nothing will change” unless the proposals are dramatically beefed up.

Mr Mann said while he was “heartened” to see the announcement of Oliver Letwin’s review into the housing market, “it is abundantly clear that we have a supply problem with six national housebuilders controlling the supply of land and therefore the properties built on it”.

He added: “Holding land on balance sheets maybe good for shareholders capital, but it is not good for human capital. Many in our party are calling for planning deregulation and a simplified planning system and such measures have merit. However, it is my long-held view – anchored in my personal experience – that there are more practical solutions out there.”

“Increasing the stamp duty land tax exemption for first-time buyers has also been a positive move, as has the introduction of the Lifetime ISA. But let’s be honest, a £1,000 per tax year contribution from the government does nothing to reduce the price of land.

“The fact that the government is doing its bit to subsidise the housing market through the Lifetime ISA and Help To Buy schemes shows that something is wrong in the market itself.”

A second Conservative MP due to attend the meeting next week, Sarah Wollaston, said second homeowners “should all have to pay council tax rather than small business rates”.

She said: “Having to pay council tax on residential property, even if rented out much of the year for holidaymakers, would give councils with high levels of second homes a much needed boost, some of which could go to help fund genuinely affordable homes.”

Gary Streeter, MP for South West Devon, is expected to advocate a new rent to buy scheme, Rentplus.

“It enables people who are on the waiting list a plan to buy their home after five,10 or 15 years of renting, with 10 per cent gifted as a deposit,” he said. “So they can enjoy the benefits of rented property when they cannot afford to buy and then own that same house when they can.”

He added: “This helps them to put down roots in one place in the knowledge they can plan for a secure, long-term future. Rentplus started in Plymouth but now operates successfully in schemes across many parts of the country.

“It will be greatly helped if the government changes the definition of affordable housing in the planning system, and I will be encouraging the prime minister to do this at our meeting.”