Rishi Sunak was ‘crowned’ Prime Minister this week after his successful leadership campaign…..but what are his past and present train of thoughts on housing and the private rental sector?

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During the media interviews for the Tory-leadership and head to head TV debates with his rival Truss which at times descended into personal attacks rather than concentrating on their plans, he managed to set out his broad housing policies.

Under Boris Johnson’s led government Sunak backed the Renters Reform Bill and its pre-cursor Fairer Private Rented Sector White Paper, he made little comments singling out PRS landlords and tenants, except to support the proposed details and was instrumental in the Covid period eviction bans.

There is little doubt that he will push through the Conservative’s pledge to dump Section 21 eviction powers to the bin.

In August Sunak said he wanted young adults having to live at home with their parents and all tenants to become capitalists through home ownership.

In an interview with Sky News, he said: “We are the standard bearers for capitalism. But we can't expect future generations to share our belief in capitalism if they can't get their hands on capital. That's why I'll do whatever it takes to build affordable, plentiful housing, building the next generation of Conservative voters.”

The new Prime Minister broadly said on housing policies that developers may have to finish a project before being allowed to seek planning permission for other plots in the same area, and local councils will be given mandatory purchasing powers to buy up available plots for development at a discount that have failed to be built on within an agreed timescale.

He intends to put a stop to existing communities having too many new homes (really?) without the necessary local facilities and promised a new 'infrastructure first guarantee', which would make sure that all local areas will have sufficient numbers of doctors, schools and roads etc. to support the whole community.

Sunak’s most specific statement on housing policy was given to a Housing magazine in a written reply when answering questions.

In his response he stated he would not follow the previous Conservative manifesto promise to build 300,000 homes a year in England which he has now rejected  “arbitrary top-down numbers”.

His team said: “Rishi does not believe in arbitrary, top down numbers. What matters is helping councils to get local plans in place more quickly to deliver beautiful homes, which communities can support.”

The statement also claims that he intends to bring in reforms to stop ‘land-banking’, to do away with red tape problems for small builders and to provide more homes built using modern methods of construction.