Factbox: Housing policies of Britain's major political parties

Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - As Britain heads to national elections in May, high prices have reshaped the housing market, doubling the proportion of people who rent privately and dissuading many young people from saving for a home. Britain's main political parties have different policies to fix the problem: CONSERVATIVE PARTY Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party plans to expand a "Right to Buy" program, first introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1980, to allow people living in social housing to purchase their homes at a discount. The scheme will enable people to buy social housing owned by non-profit organisations and follows a "Help to Buy" subsidy to help people buy houses without large deposits. The Conservatives also plan to build 200,000 new homes for first-time buyers under 40, at 20 percent below the market price. LABOUR The main opposition Labour Party plans to build at least 200,000 homes a year by 2020, and enforce a "use it or lose it" policy for developers who own land that could be used for homes. It intends to increase public sector house-building, boost competition in construction by helping smaller builders, and build new towns. Labour also says it will legislate against excessive rent increases, make three-year tenancies standard, and ban unfair letting agent fees. LIBERAL DEMOCRATS Junior coalition partners in the current government, the Liberal Democrats have set a goal of building 300,000 homes a year, in part by creating 10 new towns. They also plan a "Rent to Own" policy in which monthly payments steadily buy a stake in tenants' homes, and will introduce a "Help to Rent" tenancy deposit scheme to help young people move into their first property. UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY The right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP) plans to force local authorities to bring empty homes back into use and charge higher local taxes on owners of homes that are empty for two years. It will also offer developers incentives to build on brownfield sites and plough revenues from "Right to Buy" sales into new community housing. It will prevent non-British citizens from accessing the "Help to Buy" scheme. GREEN PARTY The Green Party says it will build 500,000 new social homes to rent and increase the social housing budget to 6 billion pounds ($9 billion) a year from 1.5 billion pounds at present. It also wants to bring empty homes back into use and scrap the government's "Help to Buy" scheme, arguing it fuels excessive demand. (Compiled by Andy Bruce)