General Discussion

The government has set itself a target of 1million new homes by 2020 and is looking at having around about 20% of them (that's 200,000) as Starter Homes sold at 20% off market value to young first time buyers.

 

 Another 135,000 new homes will be the brand new Help to Buy: Shared Ownership. Many of the restrictions on shared ownership – who can buy them, who can build them and who they can be sold on to will be removed.

 

 

 

This is what George Osborne said about housing in last week's Spending Review.

 

" in this Spending Review, we choose to build.

Above all, we choose to build the homes that people can buy. For there is a growing crisis of home ownership in our country. 15 years ago, around 60% of people under 35 owned their own home, next year it’s set to be just half of that.

We made a start on tackling this in the last Parliament, and with schemes like our Help to Buy the number of first time buyers rose by nearly 60%. But we haven’t done nearly enough yet.

So it’s time to do much more.

Today, we set out our bold plan to back families who aspire to buy their own home.

First, I am doubling the housing budget. Yes, doubling it to over £2 billion per year. We will deliver, with government help, 400,000 affordable new homes by the end of the decade.

And affordable means not just affordable to rent, but affordable to buy.

That’s the biggest house building programme by any government since the 1970s. Almost half of them will be our Starter Homes, sold at 20% off market value to young first time buyers.

135,000 will be our brand new Help to Buy: Shared Ownership which we announce today. We’ll remove many of the restrictions on shared ownership – who can buy them, who can build them and who they can be sold on to.

The second part of our housing plan delivers on our manifesto commitment to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants.

I can tell the House this starts with a new pilot.

From midnight tonight, tenants of 5 housing associations will be able to start the process of buying their own home.

The third element of the plan involves accelerating housing supply.

We are announcing further reforms to our planning system so it delivers more homes more quickly.

We’re releasing public land suitable for 160,000 homes and re-designating unused commercial land for Starter Homes.

We’ll extend loans for small builders, regenerate more run-down estates and invest over £300 million in delivering at Ebbsfleet the first garden city in nearly a century.

Fourth, the government will help address the housing crisis in our capital city with a new scheme – London Help to Buy.

Londoners with a 5% deposit will be able to get an interest-free loan worth up to 40% of the value of a newly-built home.

My Honourable Friend for Richmond Park has been campaigning on affordable home ownership in London. Today we back him all the way.

And the fifth part of our housing plan addresses the fact that more and more homes are being bought as buy-to-lets or second homes.

Many of them are cash purchases that aren’t affected by the restrictions I introduced in the Budget on mortgage interest relief; and many of them are bought by those who aren’t resident in this country.

Frankly, people buying a home to let should not be squeezing out families who can’t afford a home to buy.

So I am introducing new rates of Stamp Duty that will be 3 per cent higher on the purchase of additional properties like buy-to-lets and second homes.

It will be introduced from April next year and we’ll consult on the details so that corporate property development isn’t affected.

This extra stamp duty raises almost a billion pounds by 2021 – and we’ll reinvest some of that money in local communities in London and places like Cornwall which are being priced out of home ownership.

The funds we raise will help building the new homes. So this Spending Review delivers:

A doubling of the housing budget.

400,000 new homes; with extra support for London.

Estates regenerated.

Right to Buy rolled-out.

Paid for by a tax on buy-to-lets and second homes.

Delivered by a government committed to helping working people who want to buy their own home.

For we are the builders."