A government representative has vowed to assist thousands of UK residents in purchasing their own home through a number of new schemes, some of which are already up and running and others that are soon to implemented.
Speaking at the mortgage industry conference and exhibition, hosted by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, minister of state for housing, Mark Prisk MP, said that over the past 15 years just half of the homes required in the UK had been built.
“Under the last government we saw the housing rate drop below the lowest rate in peace time since the 1920’s”, Prisk told the conference of around 200 industry experts.
“Housing waiting lists soared in many cities and hundreds of thousands of people were unable to buy or move as private sector rents rose with residents unable to buy.
“There are 1.6 million young people in their 20’s and 30’s living with their parents. That cannot be right”.
However, Prisk asserted that the government is on track to deliver 170,000 new homes by the end of parliament, with £19.5 million invested in affordable housing.
He stated that the Funding for Lending scheme, designed to incentivise banks and building societies to boost their lending to UK households and non-financial companies, had started to create a steady flow of credit to lenders, who were subsequently providing new products for borrowers at lower prices.
The Firstbuy scheme, which allows first-time buyers to get help to fund the difference between a 5 per cent deposit and a 75 per cent mortgage, saw 8,500 reservations and 3,000 completed sales in the last 12 months and is intended to assist 27,000 people in total by the end of this parliament, according to Prisk.
Similarly, the Newbuy programme, which helps people with smaller deposits to build their own home, has seen 2,000 reservations since it began in March last.
The Home Builders Federation estimate that it will assist some 25,000 families and is claimed to be progressing well.
In good news, Prisk stated that the level of repossessions is down considerably on previous years but the Mortgage Rescue Scheme, assisting those who are struggling to make mortgage payments, has been extended to 2014 to maintain this level of progression.
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