Welcome to the BPF's one-stop shop, setting out our industry's offer to the new Government and as well as other key updates on our 'Building the Future' campaign.
The BPF General Election Manifesto
The British Property Federation's General Election manifesto 'Building our Future' sets out the property industry’s offer to the next Government.
Summary: We are the Government’s key partner investing to improve people’s lives. We invest hundreds of billions of pounds each year to rebuild and renew the UK’s buildings and public spaces – representing 7% of the country’s economy. Much of this money comes from the funds who manage our pensions and savings or insure our homes and belongings whether here in the UK or overseas.
With the right policy and regulatory framework we can do much more: invest more of our money in the priorities that matter to local communities, create more wealth and also deliver safer, healthier, places for people to live, work and relax.
Building our Future: The four pillars at a glance
Our manifesto asks the next Government to set a clear strategy and the right policy and regulatory framework across four pillars. Explore them in brief below, or get the full details here.
The UK property industry contributes more than £137.5bn a year to the economy, supporting 1 in every 12 jobs. Our industrial and logistics facilities are part of the UK’s critical infrastructure. We can do much more and support the growth and improved productivity of other sectors if the next Government works with us to:
- Reform and better resource the planning system to meet the growing need for logistics capacity, accelerate the delivery of homes and jobs, and to meet climate change obligations.
- Promote the UK as a global investment destination.
- Ensure world class facilities to support high growth sectors such as SciTech.
- Maintain and enhance the UK’s leadership position in PropTech.
- Champion public / private sector partnerships to deliver projects on time and within budget.
The major source of new capital for delivering more homes is long-term investment such as pensions and savings funds. A partnership with the next Government would provide long-term confidence to investors, drive the delivery of high quality build-to-rent homes and unlock capital to build more affordable housing and fit-for-purpose homes for older people, releasing family homes back into the market.
- Set a target of at least 30,000 build-to-rent homes per annum.
- Stimulate the delivery of 145,000 new affordable homes a year through increasing subsidy levels by £9bn-£14bn.
- Require local plans to assess the need for older people’s housing.
- Support the professionalisation of the rental sector recommended by Lord Best.
Reinvigorating our high streets and town centres is a complex challenge requiring many actors to work together in an unprecedented way. It can’t be delivered solely with investment from the property industry, so national government must also set the right framework and support local authorities. The next Government should unlock local action and investment by:
- Enacting Town Centre Investment Zones and Community Improvement Districts.
- Updating the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 so commercial property can be occupied easily, quickly and affordably.
- Building resource centrally and supporting local and regional authorities.
- Reducing and reforming the business rates system to a fair and sustainable level which is less burdensome and rapidly responsive to the local economy.
Buildings account for around 25% of all UK carbon emissions. We ask the next Government to partner with us to support the property industry with its net-zero transition and to maximise its role in building a green economy by:
- Providing a stable policy framework with clear milestones.
- Ensuring the tax system encourages the improvement of building energy efficiency and retrofit.
- Supporting renewable energy generation, including improving the capacity of, and speeding up connections with, the National Grid to cater for new communities.
- Unlocking investment by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and other property owners in Renewables and other innovative technologies.
Analysis and Summaries of Party Manifestos
Find out what's in the political parties' manifestos and our analysis of their key proposals.
Sector Manifestos
Adding more detail to our overarching general election manifesto, over the next few months we'll be launching sector-specific manifestos focusing on retail, logistics, housing, sustainability and planning. Find out more below, and stay tuned for new publications.
Building Destinations, Supporting Communities
The BPF manifesto for Retail Property
This manifesto is produced by the British Property Federation Retail Board - major owners, investors and managers of retail properties who are passionate about improving town centres and communities.
Our vision
Our vision is for vibrant, mixed use town centres, high streets and retail parks that support economic growth and foster local pride.
This vision needs the right policy framework in place – one that supports strong local partnerships and facilitates investment.
Our recommendations cover four policy areas:
- Attracting private sector investment;
- Business rates;
- Promoting sustainability; and
- Leasing arrangements.
Building the UK’s Critical Infrastructure
The BPF manifesto for Logistics
This manifesto is produced by the British Property Federation’s Industrial Committee and Logistics Property Board.
Our offer
The UK’s industrial and logistics businesses build own and manage the critical logistics space and infrastructure that keeps the UK running. We want to work with Government to create a policy environment that enables the logistics property sector to unlock investment, create jobs and deliver growth, embrace innovation, and support the country’s drive towards net zero.
This manifesto sets out eight recommendations for achieving this across three areas:
- Plan-making;
- Decision-taking; and
- Delivery.
Building for Generations
The BPF manifesto for unlocking investment into Housing
This manifesto has been produced by the BPF's Affordable Housing and Residential Committees, comprised of housing associations, pension funds, build-to-rent and other specialist providers of housing in the UK.
Our offer
Our offer to the next Government is to deliver a step change in output of homes across a range of tenures:
- Affordable housing;
- Purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA);
- High-quality build-to-rent (BtR) homes; and
- Fit-for-purpose homes for older people.
Increased delivery of the above would in turn release existing homes back into the for-sale and rental market and so represent genuinely additional new supply, enabling the industry to play a fuller part in addressing the UK's housing crisis.
Building More, Building Better
The BPF manifesto for Planning
This manifesto has been produced by the BPF’s Planning Committee.
Our vision
BPF members include long term investors such as pension funds, who invest our money for long term returns that fund our later years. We thus have a driving passion to see a planning system that functions quickly, efficiently and with certainty; which in turn delivers the places that make the country more productive and sustainable.
This manifesto makes recommendations on four areas:
- Strategic planning to drive growth in the right locations;
- Creating stability by allowing the local plan system to bed in;
- Public and private investment in the planning system; and
- Planning obligations
Building a Sustainable Future
The BPF manifesto for Carbon
This manifesto has been produced by members of our Sustainability Committee, which comprises some of the UK’s biggest investors, owners and managers of property, as well as real estate experts and advisors.
Our offer
BPF members have hundreds of billions of pounds of assets, and hundreds of millions of square feet of real estate space, under management. We can make a significant contribution to tackling climate change and decarbonising our economy, creating tens of thousands of jobs, cutting bills for tenants and attracting global investment.
Our recommendations on how Government can help us do this cover five themes:
- Delivering policy and regulatory certainty;
- Financing the transition;
- Closing the data deficit;
- Transforming the UK’s electricity grid; and
- Reforming the planning system.
BPF #GE24 Press Releases and Reactions
Read our latest comments to the media on the general election below. You can read all our press releases here.
Following the result of the UK General Election, our Chief Executive Melanie Leech, commented:
‘Congratulations to the new Government, and to Angela Rayner in her new role as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The property sector stands ready to work with her and the incoming Labour Government to forge a new partnership based on a clear vision and a stable policy framework, and harnessing the power of public/private partnerships to deliver for local communities.
The size of Labour’s majority is a strong platform to take the swift and decisive action in key areas such as planning, which will give long-term investors confidence and unlock more private capital to deliver housing and local infrastructure such as logistics facilities, revitalise high streets and decarbonise our older building stock’.
Commenting on the Labour Party Manifesto, Melanie Leech, Chief Executive, British Property Federation said:
“It’s positive to see Labour reaffirm their commitment to an industrial strategy and to working closely with business to deliver its ambitions. The property industry has the desire, skills and capital to invest in the UK’s built environment and a clear economic strategy and a re-set of our partnership with the next Government will unlock billions of pounds to build the more productive economy, new homes, rejuvenated town centres and sustainable future the UK needs.
“Labour is right to focus on improving the planning system as the key enabler of growth. Introducing effective strategic planning means that decisions are made at the appropriate national or regional level, rather than just locally, which will allow us to deliver more homes against a clear target and also provide the logistics infrastructure and business spaces we need to support sustainable communities. Measures to ensure up-to-date local plans are in place and a new approach to ‘grey belt’ land are also welcome as is the commitment to more local authority planners so that existing projects can be unblocked, and local authorities are better able to engage with our sector to provide for future needs.”
Commenting on the Conservative Party 2024 general election manifesto, Melanie Leech CBE said:
“We have a housing emergency and it is positive to see a commitment to 1.6m new homes over the next Parliament, which needs to be translated into a clear target. Importantly this includes explicit support for different forms of housing, particularly homes for older people. Our manifesto, ‘Building our Future’ sets out how we think half a million bedrooms could be released back into the market by 2030 by boosting the supply of older people’s housing that better meets the needs of the UK’s growing elderly population.
“While the abolition of Stamp Duty up to £425,000 and a new Help to Buy scheme will help affordability for some, we need a clear plan on how supply will be increased across all tenures and the whole country over and above building in the inner cities. That needs reconciling with the ‘cast iron’ protection for Green Belt land, which we believe unnecessarily limits the scope to build on previously-developed and well-connected parts of it.
"We support the approach to renters' reform. It is really important that abolition of s21 is done thoughtfully, accompanied by court reform, to maintain investment in the sector. On leasehold reform, we worry that broad political statements do not match the practicalities of delivery. You can only move away from leasehold if there is a working alternative. Capping ground rents in such a broad-brush way is fraught with consequences that impact on leaseholders and freeholders.
"From a commercial perspective, the proposal to shift some of the burden of business rates onto warehouses misses the point, which is that the overall burden of business rates is simply too high for everyone. Alongside a reduction in the rate, what we need is more frequent revaluations to ensure that rates bills better track property values, and to de-couple business rates from inflation to make the tax more sustainable.”
Commenting on the Liberal Democrats' 2024 General Election Manifesto, Melanie Leech CBE, Chief Executive of the BPF, said:
"It is good to see the Liberal Democrats support an ambitious housing target. It taking that target to another level, however, it is important that they harness the ability of emerging sectors such as Build-to-Rent and older people’s housing to bring forward new housing supply, and to enable faster build out rates, especially in development such as new towns, which the party explicitly commits to.
While proposals like more financial support for social housing and brownfield development align with the BPF’s own manifesto, ‘Building our Future’, we have concerns that politicians of all hues think that the abolition of leasehold, and of no fault evictions, will work simply at the stroke of a pen, when both require investment in workable alternatives.
Giving local councils certainty through long term funding settlements would be welcome in terms of being able to plan for regeneration investment, and particularly so if that long term certainty were extended to social housing rent settlements which would in turn unlock pension fund investment into new social homes, as we call for in our manifesto".
Following the announcement from the Prime Minister that a general election would take place on 4 July 2024, our Chief Executive, Melanie Leech CBE said:
"Investors need certainty. An earlier election will give us that and is a golden opportunity to reset the relationship between the real estate sector and the next Government, as called for in the BPF’s manifesto ‘Building our Future’".