General Election 2015: Parties pledge to tackle housing crisis

In first of a regular series looking at the key election issues, we take a look at the various housing policies

Pressure on Britain’s limited housing stock has never been greater. With sale prices and rents increasing, all parties agree it is critical for the country to build more homes – but disagree about how best to achieve this.

Building, building and more building

The Conservatives originally said they would build 100,000 new homes exclusively for young first-time buyers. Then, when Labour promised to make sure the country was building 200,000 homes a year by 2020, the Tories upped their game. In a recent speech Cameron said he would build 200,000 new properties for first-time buyers in England in the next five years.

Not to be outdone, the Liberal Democrats have pledged to build 300,000 houses a year by 2020. If these numbers seem to be getting a bit high and uncosted that’s because, well, they are.

Support for renters

With home ownership plummeting among young people, rising numbers of people are reliant on landlords. Labour wants to introduce a series of reforms for renters, including banning estate agents from charging letting fees, legislation to make three-year tenancies the norm, and putting an upper ceiling on rent increases. The Liberal Democrats also want to cap rent increases and the Greens want rent control and greater legal protection for tenants.

Help to Buy

The Coalition’s flagship housing policy has already helped more than 73,000 first-time buyers get their foot on the housing ladder by offering a government loan of 20 per cent to buy a new-build property. Economists worry that the scheme has inflated the housing market but the Tories have pledged to extend it until 2020.

George Osborne announced a new Help to Buy Isa in last month’s Budget, which offers an extra £50 from the Government for every £200 saved for first-time home buyers. Labour responded by saying it would use the scheme to fund 125,000 new homes, making banks and building societies that offer the Isas obliged to invest the funds in house-building.

The Lib Dems want to pilot a scheme called Rent to Own, where first-time buyers steadily build up a share in their home through monthly payments until they own the property outright after 30 years.

Bedroom tax

Probably the most unpopular of all the Conservative’s welfare reforms, the policy means anyone in social housing deemed to have surplus bedrooms has their housing benefit docked.

Labour, Ukip, the Green party, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru have all pledged to scrap the bedroom tax. The Liberal Democrats’ policy is to reform it. They would change the rules so that the reduction in benefit is only applied if families are offered smaller accommodation and turn it down.

Social housing

There are more than 1.8 million households waiting for a social home in England alone – an increase of 81 per cent since 1997. For decades Britain has failed to build enough new council houses to meet demand.

The Scottish National Party has pledged to construct 5,000 new council homes in Scotland in the next parliamentary term and says its aim is to build more than 6,000 new socially rented houses each year.

Ukip has said it will change the points system for social housing to give priority to ex-service men and women and those returning from active service.

It will also end Right to Buy for foreign nationals.

The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as possible.

Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed:

All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report)