This week saw the release of all the main parties manifestos and there’s lots to digest on housing, homelessness and policy linked to homelessness prevention. There’s a lot of variation between how different parties approached their manifestos – some have lots of very specific policies, others talk in broader terms around vision and ambition. What is encouraging to see is that for most of the main parties efforts to tackle homelessness are specifically mentioned.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of all polices including in the manifestos we’ve focussed on things that directly relate to homelessness, or supporting people experiencing homelessness. If you want to read the full manifesto for any party you can: Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats, and Green.
Not all parties have released their manifesto. We will update this page accordingly for all the main political parties.
Homelessness and rough sleeping
| Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats | Green Party | Reform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| We will continue with our plans to end rough sleeping and prevent people from ending up on the streets in the first place | Develop a new cross-government strategy, working with Mayors and Councils across the country, to put Britain back on track to ending homelessness | End rough sleeping within the next Parliament | . | . |
| Deliver our commitments under the Local Authority Housing Fund and review the quality of temporary accommodation | Ensure veterans have access to the mental health, employment, and housing support and in other areas they need | Urgently publish a cross-Whitehall plan to end all forms of homelessness | . | . |
| . | . | Introducing a ‘somewhere safe to stay’ legal duty to ensure that everyone who is at risk of sleeping rough is provided with emergency accommodation and an assessment of their needs. | . | . |
| . | . | Ensuring sufficient financial resources for local authorities to deliver the Homelessness Reduction Act | . | . |
Social housing
| Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats | Green Party | Reform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renewing the Affordable Homes Programme that will deliver homes of all tenures | Deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation | 150,000 new social homes a year | 150,000 new social homes a yea | Reform Social Housing Law Prioritise local people and those who have paid into the system. |
| Deliver our commitments under the Local Authority Housing Fund and review the quality of temporary accommodation | 1..5 million new homes over the next parliament | Give LAs the power to end Right to Buy in their areas | End the so-called ‘right to buy | . |
| Legislate for new ‘Local Connection’ and ‘UK Connection’ tests for social housing | Reviewing the increased right to buy discounts introduced in 2012 and increasing protections on newly-built social housing | . | . | . |
| Implement a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ expectation of social housing landlords for anti-social behaviour | . | . | . | . |
Legislative reform
| Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats | Green Party | Reform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pass a Renters Reform Bill that will deliver fairness in the rental market for landlords and renters alike. | Renters reform: immediately abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, prevent private renters being exploited and discriminated against, empower them to challenge unreasonable rent increases | Scrap the Vagrancy Act | Push to end Section 21 no-fault evictions and introduce long term leases. | Abolish the Renters’ (Reform) Bill. Existing legislation was inadequate to address bad practices. Instead, we will boost the monitoring, appeals and enforcement process for renters with grievances. |
| Deliver the court reforms necessary to fully abolish Section 21 and strengthen other grounds for landlords to evict private tenants guilty of anti-social behaviour. | Take steps to decisively raise standards, including extending ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the private sector. | Renters reform: ban no fault evictions, make three year tenancies the default and create a national register of licensed landlords | . | . |
Welfare reform
| Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats | Green Party | Reform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reform our disability benefits so they are better targeted and reflect people’s genuine needs, while delivering a step change in mental health provision. | Review Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty. | Exempt groups of homeless people, and those at risk of homelessness, from the Shared Accommodation Rate. | Increase Universal Credit and legacy benefits by £40 a week. | All job seekers and those fit to work must find employment within 4 months or accept a job after 2 offers. Otherwise, benefits are withdrawn. |
| Tighten up how the benefits system assesses capability for work. | Reform or replace the work capability assessment alongside a proper plan to support disabled people to work | Removing the two-child limit and the benefit cap | Abolish the two-child benefit cap | Personal Independence Payment and Work Capability Assessment should be face to face. We will require independent medical assessments to prove eligibility for payments. |
| Introduce tougher sanctions rules so people who refuse to take up suitable jobs after 12 months on benefits can have their cases closed and their benefits removed entirely | . | . | Increase all disability benefits by 5% | Those registered with severe disabilities or serious long-term illnesses would be exempt from regular checks |
| . | . | . | Scrap the bedroom tax. | . |
Homelessness and the immigration and asylum system
| Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats | Green Party | Reform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bring our Illegal Migration Act into force and clearing the asylum backlog, with all claims processed in six months and the use of hotels ended | End use of hotels for asylum accommodation | Increase the ‘move-on’ period for refugees to 60 days | Push for an end to the hostile environment | No legal aid for non-citizens. |
| . | . | Expand access to immigration legal advice by making the legal aid system simpler, fairer and more generous | Campaign to abolish the No Recourse to Public Funds condition | All asylum seekers that arrive illegally from safe countries will be processed rapidly, offshore if necessary. |
| . | . | Repeal the ‘Right to Rent’ scheme | Push for those seeking asylum and protection to be permitted to work while their application is being decided. | Those entering from a safe country will also be barred from claiming asylum or citizenship. |
| . | . | Establish a firewall to prevent public agencies from sharing personal information with the Home Office for the purposes of immigration enforcement and repeal the immigration exemption in the Data Protection Act. | . | . |
Inclusion health
| Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats | Green Party | Reform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pass a new law to provide better treatment and support for severe mental health needs in the first session of the next Parliament. | As part of our health mission, Labour will tackle the social determinants of health, halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions in England. | Increasing the Public Health Grant, with a proportion of the extra funding set aside for those experiencing the worst health inequalities to co-produce plans for their communities. | Push for an end to the hostile environment | . |
| . | Develop local partnership working between the NHS and social care on hospital discharge. | Establishing a ‘Health Creation Unit’ in the Cabinet Office to lead work across government to improve the nation’s health and tackle health inequalities. | Campaign to abolish the No Recourse to Public Funds condition | . |
| . | . | Investing in more addiction services and support for drug users, including specialist youth support services. | Push for those seeking asylum and protection to be permitted to work while their application is being decided. | . |
| . | . | Ensuring that all police forces have a mental health professional in the control room at all times. | . | . |
| . | . | Supporting the police to achieve adequate levels of training in mental health response. | . | . |
Criminal Justice
| Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats | Green Party | Reform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bring our Illegal Migration Act into force and clearing the asylum backlog, with all claims processed in six months and the use of hotels ended | n Greater Manchester, probation is linked up with housing and health services to ensure offenders leaving custody receive the support they need. Labour will conduct a strategic review of probation governance, including considering the benefits of devolved models. | Introducing a National Resettlement Plan to improve the rehabilitation of people leaving prison and cut reoffending. | . | Drug dealing and trafficking will get mandatory life imprisonment. |
| . | Introducing new Respect Orders – powers to ban persistent adult offenders from town centres, which will stamp out issues such as public drinking and drug use. | . | . | A new offence of Substantial Possession of Drugs will meet heavy fines. |
| . | . | . | . | Clampdown on all crime and antisocial behaviour. |
Funding and Commissioning
| Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats | Green Party | Reform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| . | Give councils multi-year funding settlements end wasteful competitive bidding. | Tackle the funding crisis facing local authorities, including by providing multi-year settlements, boosting the supply of social housing, and forging a long-term, cross-party agreement on social care | Elected Greens will ensure that local authorities across England are given the powers and resources they need. They will push for an increase in local government funding of £5bn per year to tackle the current under-funding crisis | . |