Johnson unveils series of housing reforms to increase home ownership
Boris Johnson has launched a “mortgage review”, which will look at ways at extending low deposit home loans, as a part of a series of newly unveiled housing reforms.
Number 10 said the review would “look at what other countries are doing and see if we can further extend opportunities in the mortgage market” and comes as the Prime Minister today announced several new policies to help people get on the housing ladder.
This includes a policy that will see low-wage workers able to put their housing benefits toward mortgage payments.
Johnson said during a major setpiece speech that “we will look to change the rules on welfare so that the 1.5m working people who are in receipt of housing benefits” can “put it towards a first-ever mortgage”.
Johnson said the £30bn the government spends each year on housing benefits would be better spent on helping people become homeowners. He added that the government is “going to explore discounting Lifetime and Help to Buy ISA savings from Universal Credit eligibility rules”.
“Not letting anyone claim benefits while sitting on vast savings pots that they could be drawing on. That’s not the people we’re targeting here,” he said.
“But making it easier for hard-working people to put away a little each month until they have enough for a deposit on their first home.
“To help keep people in a home if they’re unfortunate enough to become unemployed, we’re going to let people access support for paying their mortgage that much earlier that is presently the case.”
Number 10 said that anyone using the scheme would still need to have their own savings to pay the mortgage deposit.
The PM also confirmed plans for a new right-to-buy scheme, which will give millions of housing association tenants the opportunity to buy their homes at discounts of up to 70 per cent of the market price.
“We will finish the right to own reforms Margaret Thatcher began in the 1980s, ending the absurd position where first time buyers spend their life savings on flats, only to find themselves being charged hundreds of pounds for painting their own doors or unable even to own a pet dog,” he said.