BPF looks at housing and property sectors in ABC&D

The British Property Federation's (BPF) Andrew Teacher takes a look at the coalition governments' policies likely to affect the housing and property sectors...

The Government believes that it is time for a fundamental shift of power from Westminster to people, promoting decentralisation and democratic engagement, and ending the era of top-down government by giving new powers to local councils, communities, neighbourhoods and individuals.

It remains to be seen what will become of the approach set out in the draft supplement to PPS1 which is currently under consultation with respect to land allocation, development management and any widespread roll-out of decentralised energy and heat on a local scale.

We look forward to engaging with the new Government on the detail of this, but more resource will initially be required to support the transition from the current regime to the new one, and it is unclear how this will sit alongside a broader programme of fiscal restraint.

With the industry cautiously dipping its toe back into the development market, the transitional arrangements will be critical, so that developers remain confident and build.

Though there is a loosely worded pledge to require 'improvements to the energy efficiency of new housing' it is unclear how this will manifest in practice in the short term.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have both in opposition broadly supported the zero carbon agenda.

In the longer term, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive Recast is expected to be finalised soon, and contains requirements for member states to increase the availability of nearly zero energy buildings (buildings with a high energy performance, with the very low or nearly zero amount of energy required to be delivered to a very significant extent via renewable energy sources).

Member states will be required to draw up national plans for increasing the number of nearly zero energy buildings and that by 31 December 2020, that all new buildings are nearly zero energy buildings and that after 31 December 2018, all new buildings occupied and owned by public authorities are nearly zero-energy buildings.

The Government has scrapped Home Information Packs with immediate effect (via a clause in the 2004 Housing Act).

Energy Performance Certificates, as they derive from European legislation, remain in place for housing.

The Government also proposed to introduce a floor price for carbon.

This may have implications for allowance pricing in the first and ensuing capped phases of the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, and create a more attractive secondary market for the sale of allowances.

The policies affected by the industry are: Economy and tax Reduce the deficit: Significantly accelerated reduction of the structural deficit Full Spending Review reporting this autumn Increase in capital gains tax for non-business assets to rise to similar rates for income tax Corporation tax: reform the corporate tax system by simplifying reliefs and allowances, and tackling avoidance, in order to reduce headline rates Local government finance review with the intention to localise business rates Review the effectiveness of the raising of the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers - Previously the Tories committed to raising the threshold for first time buyers to GBP250k Investigate how the process of including housing costs in the CPI measure of inflation can be accelerated.

Freeze Council Tax in England for at least one year, and seek to freeze it for a further year, in partnership with local authorities Infrastructure Abolish the Infrastructure Planning Commission and replace it with an efficient and democratically accountable system that provides a fast-track process for major infrastructure projects No third runway at Heathrow and no additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted Nuclear power: Bring forward a national planning statement on new nuclear power plants.

Liberal Democrats will be allowed to abstain from voting on nuclear power legislation Planning and local government Radically reform the planning system in the longer term to give neighbourhoods a say in the shape of their local area New planning framework: Publish and present to Parliament a simple and consolidated national planning framework covering all forms of development and setting out national economic, environmental and social priorities Abolish Regional Spatial Strategies Local enterprise partnerships to replace RDAs Create a presumption in favour of sustainable development in the planning system Abolition of Home Information Packs (HIPs), with retention of Energy Performance Certificates Introduce new powers to help communities save local facilities and services Maintain the Green Belt, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and other environmental protections, and create a new designation - similar to SSSIs - to protect green areas of particular importance to local communities Abolish the Comprehensive Area Assessment Provide incentives for local authorities to deliver sustainable development, including for new homes and businesses Councils to take competition issues in to account when drawing up their local plans to shape the direction and type of new retail development Promote green spaces and wildlife corridors Energy and climate change Feed-in tariffs in electricity - as well as the maintenance of banded Renewables Obligation Certificates Promote anaerobic digestion (energy from waste) Homes: Require continuous improvements to the energy efficiency of new housing Green Investment Bank to finance new green technology start-ups Introduce a floor price for carbon, and make efforts to persuade the EU to move towards full auctioning of ETS permits Encourage community-owned renewable energy schemes where local people benefit from the power produced.

Communities that host renewable energy projects to keep the additional business rates they generate Push for the EU to demonstrate leadership in tackling international climate change, including supporting an increase in the EU emission reduction target to 30 per cent by 2020 Seek to increase the target for energy from renewable sources Give an Annual Energy Statement to Parliament to set strategic energy policy and guide investment Housing Empty homes: explore a range of measures to bring empty homes into use Promote shared ownership schemes and help social tenants and others to own or part-own their home Require continuous improvements to the energy efficiency of new housing Review the effectiveness of the raising of the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers Phase out the ring-fencing of grants to local government and review the unfair Housing Revenue Account Banking Reform the banking system Ensure the flow of credit to viable SMEs.

This will include consideration of both a major loan guarantee scheme and the use of net lending targets for the nationalised banks Reduce systemic risk in the banking system and establish an independent commission to investigate the complex issue of separating retail and investment banking in a sustainable way; while recognising that this will take time to get right, the commission will be given an initial time frame of one year to report Reform the regulatory system.

Bring forward proposals to give the Bank of England control of macroprudential regulation and oversight of micro-prudential regulation Investigate how the process of including housing costs in the CPI measure of inflation can be accelerated Miscellaneous Flooding: Take forward the findings of the Pitt Review to improve flood defences and prevent unnecessary building in areas of high flood risk Cut red tape by introducing a one-in, one-out rule whereby no new regulation is brought in without other regulation being cut by a greater amount.

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