A Housing Strategy for England
The Government published a rather weighty housing strategy review on Tuesday 22nd of November 2011. One of the main points from the strategy is that they want to help first time Buyers to purchase a brand new property. This is something that the NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) have mentioned to Government on quite a few occasions and will help First Time Buyers to obtain a 95% loan. ‘Laying the Foundations: A Housing Strategy for England’ aims to:
1. Get the housing market moving again
2. Lay the foundations for a more responsive, effective and stable housing market in the future
The government realises that, buyers can’t buy, lenders are not lending enough and builders are not building.
The document claims that the Government will not achieve their aspirations for a thriving and stable housing market “by attempting to control the market from Whitehall. This Government is doing things differently – freeing up local areas to provide the homes needed for their communities and enabling the market to work more efficiently and responsively”. The current Government has claimed that it has inherited many problems from the previous government and now feels it’s time to take immediate action to get the housing market moving. Supporting a new and innovative new build indemnity scheme led by the Home Builders Federation and Council of Mortgage Lenders to provide up to 95 per cent loan to value mortgages for new build properties in England, backed by a house builder indemnity fund
• Consulting on a proposal to allow reconsideration of those planning obligations agreed prior to April 2010 where development is stalled
• The establishment of a new £500 million Growing Places Fund which will support infrastructure that unblocks housing and economic growth
• Launching a new £400 million ‘Get Britain Building’ investment fund, which will support building firms in need of development finance, including small and medium-sized builders. This will help to unlock progress on stalled sites which have planning permission and are otherwise shovel ready
• Freeing up public sector land with capacity to deliver up to 100,000 new homes – with Build Now, Pay Later deals on the table, where there is market demand and where this is affordable and represents value for money, to support builders who are struggling to get finance upfront
• Supporting and encouraging more individuals to build their own homes through a Custom Homes programme, including making available up to £30 million of new funding to support provision of short-term project finance on a repayable basis
This will be music to many would be buyers ears, as they have been stuck in rented accommodation for far too long whilst yearning to get on the property ladder albeit a lot later in their life than their slightly older contemporaries.