Buying UK property to get tougher for foreigners

FOREIGN buyers will face tougher restrictions on purchasing British property under Treasury plans to help first-time buyers.

Polices could be announced within weeks as getting younger people on to the housing ladder becomes a major part of the Conservatives’ autumn political drive.

“There’s an issue in London with a large proportion of new-build flats being purchased off plan by, particularly, Far Eastern buyers: China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia,” a Whitehall source said.

“They are bought when the flats are still under construction, meaning firsttime buyers don’t get a look-in. That is not just in central London, but in the suburbs and other cities such as Manchester.”

Number 10 and Treasury officials will discuss housing policy this week ahead of the Conservative Party conference in the first week of October and the Budget in November.

Other ideas in the running include accelerating the sale of governmentowned land and easing the rules on building on brownfield sites to help boost supply.

Some Whitehall figures also back more borrowing to invest in housing. Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary, has previously supported the move in public – though the Treasury is concerned about cost.

Theresa May wants her domestic policy agenda to dominate the party conference after delivering her speech in Florence on leaving the EU. Sources involved in the preparations said that

housing is likely to become a big theme of the coming weeks as the Tories look to win back younger voters who backed Jeremy Corbyn in June.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, told Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee recently that he wanted to address the difficulty faced by first-time buyers.

He called for ideas to be submitted for the November Budget and – alongside student debt – identified it as an area the Tories must tackle to win back young voters. An ally of the Chancellor said he feared people in their twenties and thirties were being “left behind economically” and therefore “punished” the Tories, as the governing party, at the election.

Ministers have already announced “accelerated” plans for selling off Government land for housing, but some Tories feel that more could be done.

Land around railways, owned by the Ministry of Defence or part of the NHS estate is especially being considered by Treasury officials.

The developments come as the Conservatives launched an attack on a littleknown Labour policy announced in its housing manifesto during the election.

Labour pledged to restore Empty Dwelling Management Orders – a controversial policy introduced by New Labour in 2006 but watered down by the Tories – to its full strength.

The change would empower councils to take over private homes that have been left empty for six months, rather than two years.

Luke Hall, the Tory MP for Thornbury and Yate, warned: “The return of John Prescott’s bullying powers would mean town hall bureaucrats seizing everyday homes in streets across the country, including those of recently deceased.

“Labour’s hard-Left agenda would entail widespread state confiscation of private property, targeting the elderly and the families.”