Labour’s cautious manifesto offers hints of real ‘change’

Originally written as a column for Inside Housing.

Given a backdrop of grim economic times and successive election defeats, this was always going to be a cautious Labour manifesto.

So the good news is that housing features much more prominently than it did in the plans that the party has laid out in the last few months. It had only a walk on part in Labour’s  five missions, six first steps and 10 ‘policies to change Britain’ –

The tone was set by one of the four speakers who introduced Keir Starmer. Daniel rents a one-bedroom flat in east London with his partner and two children and said he was backing Labour because of its plans to build more homes and support first-time buyers.

The manifesto itself contains few new policies and no new money but there are some interesting hints about what Labour might do in office.

The promise of 1.5 million new homes in the next parliament forms a key part of the section on kickstarting economic growth, with the party arguing that: ‘Britain is hampered by a planning regime that means we struggle to build either the infrastructure or housing the country needs.

And Labour directly challenges the Conservatives by arguing that ‘the dream of homeownership is now out of reach for too many young people’.

However, the manifesto does not mention the target of 70 per cent home ownership that Starmer set in his party conference speech only 18 months ago.