No mention of empty homes as Emma Reynolds announces key Labour housing policies

The 2015 General Election campaign starts here as far as housing policy goes. In a hard-hitting speech delivered in Nottingham, Emma Reynolds, Shadow Housing Minister, appears to have laid out the key Labour policies on the issue of housing supply. The proposed policies are more radical than others that have been floated tentatively to date. They include, for example, a three-year tenancy being the norm in the private rented sector. Regrettably, there is little there to excite empty homes practitioners. In fact there is no mention of empty homes at all, despite recent reports of Labour proposals to hike Empty Homes Premium. Silence on this particular issue may indicate that Labour wants to avoid any association at all with higher taxation. But we might have hoped for some mention of the importance of tackling empty homes along with positive proposals to do something about the issue. Of most concern to empty homes practitioners would be the hostile view of New Homes Bonus, although strangely there is no promise to get rid of it; perphaps that is just taken for granted. Whilst the negativity about NHB is understandable based on the evidence to date, it is also pretty clear from that evidence that NHB does encourage local authorities to take steps to tackle empty home: if Labour want to abolish it we would hope that they would indicate alternative incentives.