Run jointly with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and the Treasury, the taskforce will look at the potential for Government intervention in the shared equity market, particularly the scope to work in partnership with the private sector.
The aim is to increase the number of people able to benefit from shared equity programmes and help the growing number of ‘intermediate’ households, building on the success in helping key workers into home ownership.
It is estimated that over one million households have incomes too high to qualify for housing benefit, but too low to buy a home of their own.
Housing Minister, Yvette Cooper, said: “These are practical steps to help families get a first foot on the housing ladder – the extra investment in the Budget, one stop shops to give people tailored support and now a new taskforce to realise the benefits of shared ownership for many people demonstrates this GovernmentÂ’s commitment to support the aspirations of first-time buyers.”
From the beginning of April, there will be 23 new ‘Homebuy Agents’ covering every region in the country.
‘One stop shops’ will also be available to give first-time buyers clear advice on how they could be helped by the new Homebuy scheme by buying a part share in properties with the rest of the costs met by lenders and registered social landlords.
These measures build on £970 million set out in the Budget for the National Affordable Housing Programme to deliver 35,000 new low cost home ownership properties as well as funding for 49, 000 social homes for rent, to be built over the next two years.
Yvette Cooper said: “While there is huge potential for us to widen shared equity now to help more people access the housing market, it is not an alternative to building new homes for the future.
“We need to build more homes across the board for the next generation – more market housing, more social housing and more shared equity housing – to fix the disparity between supply and demand and ease pressures on first-time buyers.”
