Letter from the Publisher: The first of many manifestos

With the general election fast approaching, politicians of all persuasions will be out on the campaign trail across the length and breadth of the country to try and convince voters that their party is the right choice.

One issue that in the current climate will be particularly sensitive to voters is housing. As a result, it will be towards the forefront of debates, political discourse and party manifestos over the coming months.

The leading bodies for the estate and lettings industry, the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), launched a joint Housing Manifesto on Tuesday, outlining their recommendations on how to tackle the main issues facing our sector.

The professionals, politicians, experts and campaigners spoken to by the associations had three main concerns: the housing shortage caused by a lack of supply, insufficient regulation in lettings and sales, and unfair taxation across the whole of the property industry.

Here is a more detailed breakdown of the joint proposals

Lack of supply'

The manifesto is pretty scathing when it comes to the government's existing housing policy, arguing that not enough houses are being built to meet the growing demand from both the sales and private rented sector. As people live longer and the population continues to grow year-on-year, this problem isn't going to go away anytime soon.

The associations believe that the government's housebuilding programme isn't doing much to rectify this. The number of houses being built in the UK has declined by 44% since 1980. In the 2013-14 financial year, 140,880 new houses were built, compared to the 251,820 built in 1979/80. Moreover, only 5% of the UK's housing stock is currently transacted annually. Rising demand is being met with diminishing supply - you don't need to have an Economics degree to know that this is not sustainable.

Insufficient regulation'

The NAEA and ARLA believe Britain currently maintains a two-tiered private rented market, consisting of those who operate to professional standards and those that do not'. As a result, they are calling for regulation to be tightened to limit the chances of the industry being dragged into disrepute. Despite this, the manifesto urges the government not to go through with an outright ban on letting agent's fees. And despite stating that there is insufficient regulation in lettings and sales, it does not elaborate on how it thinks the sales market should be regulated.

Unfair taxation'

The associations pledge their support for fair property taxes, but argue that punitive taxes for those who own property at the top-end of the market are already having an impact. The manifesto makes it crystal clear where the NAEA and ARLA stand on the proposals for a mansion tax, with the following assertion: future Governments should not introduce a Mansion Tax which would be a regressive form of taxation that asset-rich and cash-poor consumers may not have the ability to afford.

The divisive issue of empty homes has also been raised and the manifesto argues for local authorities to be given powers to fine or tax homeowners who leave properties empty - presumably to avoid the manifestation of ghost towns' and help make more properties available for first-time buyers.

Perhaps the most pertinent point the manifesto makes is a plea for housing not to merely become a political football in the months leading up to polling day. We have seen in the past how politicians like to score points against each other with cheap pot-shots and exaggerated soundbites. And as the joint statement from Mark Hayward and David Cox urges, we need to take the politics out of housing' otherwise Britain could face many more years of a crisis in housing supply and an increasingly unregulated, overstretched private rented sector.

Looking back to the future

When researching this piece we stumbled upon the NAEA and ARLA's joint manifesto for the 2010 general election. On top of noticing that the design and presentation of the piece has improved significantly in the past five years, it was interesting to see that progress has been made in a lot of the issues the associations raised back then.

Number one on the list was a reform of the perverse' stamp duty slab tax system in favour of a fairer, more logical' method of taxation. Now it may have taken 300 years in total and almost five years after the bodies' request, but many property buyers' dreams were made reality when George Osborne announced the overdue changes in December.

Another proposal was Support for First Time Buyers'. This arguably presents another tick on the list thanks to the Help to Buy and Funding for Lending Schemes, not to mention record low interest rates since 2009. That said, this week's English Housing Survey highlights that it is still difficult for 25-34 year olds to get on the housing ladder. On top of this, last April's Mortgage Market Review has made it harder for some first-time buyers to get a mortgage.

Elsewhere on the 2010 manifesto, the associations ask for the suspension of Home Information Packs (HIPs) and government regulation of lettings and sales agents' - another two issues which have seen a significant amount of action since the last election. The dreaded HIPs were scrapped in May 2010 - some two weeks after the election - and compulsory redress for letting agents was introduced last October, although sales agents are yet to receive the same treatment.

With most of the issues raised by the NAEA and ARLA back in 2010 receiving some sort of attention from the coalition government, by 2019 we could be looking at a housing market with the politics taken out of it and a long-term supply plan - but maybe that's just wishful thinking

This year's full manifesto can be viewed here.