Things we’d like to see in the budget Episode 3 – First Time Buyer Support

Dear Rachel,

It’s not long to the budget now, and we’re not hearing much about positive moves to support the housebuilding sector. So we’d like to explain why one of the things we’d love to see is something to support the demand side of the equation.

Help to Buy was one of many demand support measures designed to support first time buyers. When it was discontinued, that vital first step onto the housing ladder became a mountain to climb for so many who want to buy their first home.

The Help to Buy scheme had its issues, but with aa drastic reduction in the number able to take that first step, the whole chain that is our housing market stalls. It relies on people moving – upsizing as well as, for some, downsizing.

Take London, where new house building has ground pretty much to a halt. With developers abandoning sites, and, according to consultancy Molior (https://www.moliorlondon.com/) it is likely that just 6% of the 176,000 homes promised by Sir Sadiq Khan over the next 2 years will be built.

If developers can’t sell houses – either to private individuals or to housing associations – they will not build them. Help people with sensible deposit schemes and you may just find demand picks up, and build rates pick up – with all the wider economic growth benefits that brings – and isn’t that what you keep telling us all you want to achieve?

Go for it Rachel, we’d all get behind you on this one!

James Scott
MD