As the Labour Party celebrates a historic majority win in the 2024 general election and Sir Keir Starmer prepares to take his seat as Prime Minister. Families up and down the country are wondering what having a new governing party for the first time in 14 years could mean for them and their families.

Here we look at some of the pledges the Labour Party have made covering employment laws, residential property, and wills and life planning.

Employment Laws

It’s no secret that the Labour Party has made significant pledges to overhaul employment laws with a New Deal for Working People. This includes:

  • Extended employment rights to be afforded to all employees from day one of employment. This covers parental leave and sick pay. The Labour Party aims to reduce disputes relating to employment issues and to improve the work/life balance of employees.

  • Labour also plan to tackle exploitative employment contracts such as zero hour contracts and end the controversial fire and rehire practice. This will strengthen job security for working parents and ensure fairer treatment in the workplace.

Residential Property and Conveyancing

Lots of reforms to the residential property sector are planned under the new Labour government. These include:

  • Housing development through the building of 1.5 million homes. Planning reforms are also pledged to increase activity in the residential property market, address the housing shortage, make homeownership more accessible, and stimulate the construction industry.

  • As part of the planning reforms, planning authorities face tougher action to ensure they have up-to-date local plans. Focus will be put on sustainable development and the new government has pledged to fund additional planning officers. The reforms aim to streamline the approval process, reduce bureaucratic delays, and ensure that housing developments meet environmental and community standards.

  • A permanent mortgage guarantee scheme has been pledged to be launched to give first time buyers the chance to buy homes before international investors.

  • The Labour Party are aiming to abolish section 21 evictions (‘no fault’ evictions) as part of an overhaul of the regulation of the private rental sector. This will give renters the power to challenge unreasonable rent increases.

  • Increasing the rate of the stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents.

  • Reviewing the increased Right to Buy discounts introduced in 2012.

  • The Labour party has pledged NOT to introduce capital gains tax on private homes but to close the loophole “where private equity is the only industry where performance related pay is treated as capital gains.”

  • Taking “decisive action” through new regulation to improve building safety.

  • Enacting Law Commission proposals on leasehold enfranchisement, right to manage and commonhold. This will include the banning of new leasehold flats and ensuring commonhold is the default tenure. Labour have also promised to review ways to better protect leaseholders through changes to ground rent charges.

  • Finally, Labour have pledged to bring to an end the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ private housing estates and unfair maintenance.

Wills and Estate Planning

Tax reforms planned by the new Labour government may impact estate planning and wealth management.

  • Changes to business rates and VAT adjustments may indirectly affect estate planning. While the Labour Party is planning reforms that create a fairer tax system through the adjusting of business rates to reflect current market values and modifying VAT to ensure it is applied more equitably, you should be aware that these changes may impact how assets are valued and taxed, affecting overall estate planning strategies.

If you’re looking for advice on any changes to the law implemented by the new government, our specialists are on hand to assist. To speak to a specialist in a specific area of the law, please call 0845 287 0939, get in touch by email, or use the online chat button below.