Green MPs will push for rent controls and tenants’ right to demand energy efficiency improvements if they win more seats in the election.
The party’s manifesto also promises a new stable rental tenancy and an end to no-fault evictions along with private residential tenancy boards to provide an informal, cheap and speedy forum for resolving disputes before they reach a tribunal.
It hopes to appeal to environmentally-minded younger voters with plans which also entail spending £49 billion over the next five years to insulate homes and public buildings, and to fit properties with heat pumps – in a bid to double the one MP the Greens last had in parliament.
There are proposals to empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use, including giving councils, social landlords and community housing groups the chance to buy up homes left empty for more than six months. Councils would get first refusal on houses sold by private landlords.
The party also wants to end the right to buy system for social homes, build 150,000 new social homes every year and align capital gains tax with income tax.
Another housing plan would give local authorities guarantees that new housing developments would be in appropriate sites, and would come with investment in associated infrastructure, such as GP surgeries, buses and extra school and nursery places.
Co-leader Carla Denyer says: “Things can only get worse under Labour unless we dramatically change our tax system to raise money from those with the broadest shoulders.
“Young people, in particular, know just how broken Britain’s frontline services are. The economy is not working for them. They have been priced out of the housing market and are struggling to fund their education. Now is the moment to be ambitious. Not unrealistic, but ambitious.”
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