The Labour Party wins the General Election
The Labour Party has won the General Election with a landslide of at least 412 seats at the time of writing. This is the worst result the Conservative Party has ever faced, losing over 250 seats. The underlying numbers indicate that Labour’s success has come more from people rejecting the Conservatives, moving to Reform or the Liberal Democrats, rather than an increase in genuine support for Labour. This is also shown by the fact that Labour have a lower proportion of the popular vote than they did in 2017, an election which they lost. The Liberal Democrats have returned to being the third biggest party in the House of Commons, gaining over 60 seats and aided by a collapse in support for the Scottish National Party. Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce his Cabinet later this afternoon.
We will keep you updated as further details emerge. Our recent analysis of the policy pledges, indicated good news for the construction and built environment sector. A reminder of the key policies are:
Vowing to “turn the page forever” on held-back potential, he put wealth creation and economic growth at the heart of Labour’s manifesto. Labour has pledged to establish an Industrial Strategy Council on a statutory footing, to provide expert advice on long-term economic growth, comprised of representatives “from all nations and regions, business and trade unions”, and immediately reform the National Policy Planning Framework, making it easier to build laboratories, digital infrastructure, and gigafactories.
Labour’s other pledges include:
- Creating a new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, bringing together existing bodies, to set strategic infrastructure priorities and oversee the design, scope, and delivery of projects.
- Improvements to rail connectivity in the north of England, fixing five million potholes over the next five years and better preparing communities for extreme weather events. Bring the railways into public ownership.
- Ensuring a UK industrial strategy supports the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector and establishes a National Data Library.
- Introducing new Energy Independence Act to establish the framework for Labour’s energy and climate policies. Reaching clean energy by 2030, with net zero to follow
- Creating a new publicly owned company, Great British Energy, which will partner with industry and trade unions to deliver clean power by co-investing in leading technologies, supporting capital-intensive projects, and deploying local energy production.
- Bring Hinkley Point C to completion, as well as increasing rollout of small modular reactors (SMR).
- Fracking will be banned and no new coal licenses will be issued, but oil and gas operations in the North Sea will continue.
- Nearly £5bn of investment in gigafactories, carbon capture and green hydrogen
- Implementing the Warm Homes Plan to offer grants and low interest loans to support investment in insulation and other improvements such as solar panels, batteries and low carbon heating to cut bills.
- Ensuring homes in the private rented sector meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030.
- A £6.6bn Warm Homes Plan that will help install energy efficiency upgrades in 5m homes to cut bills
- Creating a new Clean Power Alliance, bringing together a coalition of countries at the cutting edge of climate action.
- Delivering 1.5m new homes in England over the next five years
- Immediately update the National Policy Planning Framework to restore mandatory housing targets
- Fast-tracking approval of urban brownfield sites and prioritising the release of lower quality ‘grey belt’ land
- “Implement solutions” to homes affected by nutrient neutrality- without weakening environmental protections
- Introduce a permanent, comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme for first time buyers
- Immediately abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions
