Rishi Sunak could bring back Help to Buy as Tories try to spike Labour attack over home ownership ahead of the next election while high interest rates and inflation deter buyers
- Scheme provided loans of up to 20% to those trying to buy their first home
- Launched by George Osborne in 2013 and ended last year after being extended
Rishi Sunak is considering relaunching the Tories’ Help to Buy scheme to woo back voters ahead of the next election as thousands struggle to get on the housing ladder.
The scheme, which provided loans of up to 20 per cent to those trying to buy their first home, was introduced in 2013 but ended last year amid questions over the £29billion cost to the taxpayer.
But Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget last year helped send interest rates soaring and the country is in the grip of the highest inflation in 40 years.
Mr Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are investigation bringing it back ahead of the next general election, the Times reported.
‘We cannot go into the next election without an offer for first-time buyers,’ one minister told the paper. ‘We all know that homeowners are more likely to vote Conservative and we cannot cede this ground to Labour.’
Labour at the weekend launched its campaign to woo homeowners and would-be buyers as well as those renting, at the weekend.
Yesterday Sir Keir Starmer said the dream of home ownership had been ‘killed’ by Mr Sunak and his government.
Rishi Sunak is considering relaunching the Tories’ Help to Buy scheme to woo back voters ahead of the next election as thousands struggle to get on the housing ladder.
The scheme, which provides loans of up to 20 per cent to those trying to buy their first home, was introduced in 2013 but ended last year amid questions over the £29billion cost to the taxpayer.
Yesterday Sir Keir Starmer said the dream of home ownership had been ‘killed’ by Mr Sunak and his government.
Data for March showed the biggest fall in housebuilding activity since the first Covid lockdown, Labour said, with housebuilding predicted to drop to the lowest rate since the Second World War.
It predicted the slowdown could cost renters an extra £200 a year by 2030.
Last year, Mr Sunak caved in to pressure from Tory backbenchers to make the target of building 300,000 homes a year in England advisory rather than mandatory.
Help to Buy was introduced in 2013 by then Chancellor George Osborne. It helped around 361,000 people purchase a new-build home, according to figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
It allowed first-time buyers to get on the property ladder with a deposit of as little as 5 per cent of the property’s value.
The Government then provides a further 20 per cent equity loan, or up to 40 per cent in London. The loan was interest-free and lasted for five years.
It was due to end in March this year after a House of Lords committee questioned the effectiveness of the £29billion project, but stopped taking new applications last October.
Shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy said: ‘Rishi Sunak’s reckless decision to roll over to his own MPs doesn’t just mean he’s abandoned a whole generation of young people’s dreams of homeownership – it’s also hitting renters right now who are already facing a cost-of-living crisis.
It comes after Sir Keir announced a raft of measures aimed at getting more people on the property ladder.
These include the introduction of a target of 70 per cent home ownership and pushing power back to communities by allowing local authorities to ‘regain control’.
Labour has accused the Government of ‘abandoning’ first-time buyers, suggesting only a third of children born in England this year will own a home by the time they reach their 50s.
‘Labour is proudly the party of homeownership,’ Ms Nandy said.
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