Government Launches £150m ‘Help To Build’ Fund

The government has unveiled a new £150m fund aimed at making it easier and more affordable for people to build their own homes. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced the new ‘Help to Build’ scheme to make self and custom homebuilding a realistic option to enable people to get on the housing ladder. The fund will provide an equity loan to those looking to take the self-build option. This will work similarly to the Help to Buy scheme. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/government-announces-150m-self-build-boost/5111549.article 

Housing Bill

The Housing Bill was introduced in the Queen’s Speech on 27 May 2015. The aim is;

“Legislation will be introduced to support home ownership and give housing association tenants the chance to own their own home.”

The purpose of the Bill is to:

• Help provide more hard working people with the chance to own their own home.

• Increase housing supply and access to home ownership.

The main benefits of the Bill would be:

• Helping more tenants of housing associations to buy a home of their own.

• Increasing the supply of new Starter Homes (to be exclusively offered to young first-time buyers, at a 20 per cent discount below their open market value).

• Helping those wishing to build their own home.

• Ensuring local people have more control over planning.

Read the full details on pages 27-29 of the Queen’s Speech on the Gov.Uk website.

Labour Unveils Home Building Scheme

Labour has unveiled a package of measures designed to help boost home construction by small building firms and give more young people the chance of getting on to the housing ladder. The party's housing spokeswoman Emma Reynolds said Labour would introduce a Help to Build scheme to allow small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to access lower-cost bank lending backed by Treasury guarantees, as well as fast-track planning for small sites of fewer than 10 homes and a requirement for councils to include a higher proportion of smaller sites for housing in their five-year plans. Read more on Yahoo News.

Labour and Banks Plan House-Building Funds

Labour is working with the five major high-street banks on proposals to kick-start a house-building boom with the help of government loan guarantees for builders. Chris Leslie, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Housing spokesperson Emma Reynolds met representatives of HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Standard Chartered and Royal Bank of Scotland last week to hammer out proposals. Labour wants a “help to build” scheme if it wins the general election next year, a policy that would involve government underwriting bank loans to small house-builders with a turnover of up to around £20m a year. These smaller firms have struggled to secure loans as the banks have become more cautious with their money since the onset of the financial crisis. Read more on the Independent website.