King’s Speech – what estate agents can expect today from Labour

Later today the King’s Speech at the opening of parliament will reveal Labour’s legislative plans including its much-vaunted promise to ‘turbocharge’ house building but also clamp down on rogue landlords and give tenants more ‘security’.

But given that Labour was been big on ‘broad brush-stroke’ policy during the election but short on detail, what can estate agents expect from the King’s speech at 11.30am today? Here are some pointers.

Renting reforms

While sales agents will benefit from Labour’s house building ambitions and planning changes (see below) letting agents arguably have much more to fear.

The three areas Labour has flagged for immediate attention are a ‘renter’s charter’ which is likely to be a stiffer version of the Tory’s Renters (Reform) Bill.

This will include an ‘ASAP’ ban on Section 21 evictions, bringing in minimum standards for properties and a form of national licencing for landlords in England.

Labour also wants to bring in Awaab’s Law, which will see lettings agents and landlords open to prosecution for not fixing damp or mould in rented properties quickly enough.

Some action is also expected on restricting rent increases. While Labour in Scotland backs its current ‘rent rise caps’, in England the party has before the election been more cautious and instead measures to prevent ‘bidding wars’ are expected, along with making it easier for tenants to challenge ‘unjustified’ rent increases by landlords or agents, possibly through a fast-track version of the current rent tribunals system.

The speech may also include plans to lengthen notice periods to four months, but the more extreme proposals seen as the Renters (Reform) Bill went – unsuccessfully it turned out – through parliament including requiring landlords to reimburse tenants for moving costs will probably not see the light of day.

Housebuilding

Labour made much of its plan to build 1.5 million homes in five years during the election, but this will only be possible is there is a major planning system shake up to allow house building in volume by the big construction firms.

So far things look not too promising, with an announcement expected within the King’s Speech to consult on changing planning laws to force councils to identify land needed in their areas to meet future housing needs.

Other announcements that may appear include three ‘towns of the future’ to be built each with 40% affordable housing to rent and buy with sites mooted outside Nottingham, Stafford and Northampton, and a promise to convert ‘Nimys’ to ‘Yimbys’ (yes in my back yard) by giving local people more control of what gets built and where. The Tories tried to introduce that and it didn’t end well.

Planning

Labour has said it wants to update the National Policy Planning Framework to “undo damaging Conservative changes”, including restoring mandatory housing targets.

“We will take tough action to ensure that Labour will get Britain building again, creating jobs across England, with 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament,” the Labour manifesto said. Keir Starmer will also require planning authorities have up-to-date Local Plans and will reform and strengthen the “presumption in favour of sustainable development”.

Labour also wants to “support local authorities by funding additional planning officers, through increasing the rate of the stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents”.

Expert view

Fergus Charlton of leading planning practice Michelmores, says: “The new government has made it clear that planning reform and house building is a key strategy.

“The focus on streamlining planning processes, setting clear targets, and unlocking new land for development seems a strong foundation for boosting housing supply and infrastructure development.

“But the re-branding of green belt to grey belt will be contentious. There are powerful lobbies who consider the green belt to be sacrosanct.

“To be effective re-brandings must be so persuasive that the public forget the previous incarnation. Whether this happens will depend on the details of policy. If new developments in the grey built are still required to show ‘very special circumstances’ to proceed then little will be gained.”

Devolution

Angela Rayner yesterday made much of her plans to enable all councils in the UK to be given more powers to make decisions and, as London Mayor Sadiq Khan has frequently asked, Rayner will be under pressure to allow larger councils and city mayors to set rents local to some degree.

Agent regulation

Labour has in the past promised to introduce in part or wholly the recommendations made by Lord Best’s Regulation of Property Agents group back in 2019 but which the Tory government kept pushing down the line.

Just over a year ago then shadow – now actual – housing minister Matthew Pennycook said in parliament that he wanted to see measures including qualifications, a statutory code of practice, a fit and proper person test and membership of a professional body to be mandatory.