£230m Windfall For Top Builders Since Start Of Help To Buy

The bosses of Britain's biggest builders have been paid more than £230million since the Help to Buy scheme was launched five years ago, the Mail can reveal. The chief executives of seven leading companies including Persimmon, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey have seen their pay triple on the back of the taxpayer-funded subsidy. Profits have also jumped fourfold since George Osborne's housing programme was introduced in April 2013. But the number of new homes built has grown by just 50 per cent. Read more on the This is Money website.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-6364383/230m-windfall-builders-start-Help-Buy.html

Potential For £320bn Windfall From New Generation Of Social Housing

Councils could generate £320bn for the country’s economy over the next 50 years if they were able to build a “new generation” of high-quality council housing, the LGA says. Analysis examining four different future economic scenarios demonstrates how new social housing will deliver huge gains to tax payers. Even the worst-case scenario referenced by the LGA still results in a £10bn return. LGA chair Lord Porter said the findings offered the Chancellor the chance to go beyond lifting the borrowing cap and deliver “once-in-a-lifetime change” to benefit thousands across the country. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/potential-for-320bn-windfall-from-new-generation-of-social-housing/

Starter Home Buyers Could Receive £141,000 Windfall From Taxpayers

The government’s starter homes initiative could deliver a taxpayer-backed windfall of £141,000 each to 200,000 lucky first-time buyers, but 2 million more aspiring homeowners will be stuck renting, campaigners say. The scheme, which allows developers to replace shared ownership and affordable rented homes with properties sold at a 20% discount, has been widely criticised since it was first announced in December 2014. One of the key concerns for housing campaigners is that the homes can be sold on at the open-market rate after five years. Lobby group Generation Rent said that this meant a “£27bn raffle” in which the original buyers stood to gain, while those who missed out would find it ever harder to get on the housing ladder. It said the scheme’s potential rewards “far exceed the already generous returns of home ownership”. 
 Read more on the Generation Rent website.

Help to Buy Scheme Could Net Government £4.5BILLION

The Help to Buy scheme could net the government £4.5billion because of a house price boom - even though the boom has partly been blamed on the scheme itself. The Treasury is on track to receive a vast windfall because of a clause allowing it to share the cash from homes which are sold on at a profit. Help to Buy hands buyers 20 per cent of a home's value - and when the house is sold with the loan still active, the government takes 20 per cent of any increase over the years. Because of the explosion in British house prices, the government will make a 59 per cent return on its loans over the scheme's lifetime, research by the Financial Times has claimed. That means by 2020, when the scheme is due to end, the Treasury will have handed out enough loans to net itself £4.5billion. Read more on the Daily Mail website.