Chancellor George Osborne announced two major initiatives under the Help to Buy banner yesterday as part of his Budget announcement.
This includes a shared equity project building on the First Buy scheme and a mortgage guarantee programme. However, the £3.5bn investment in shared equity will only apply to properties in England.
Now Philip Hogg, chief executive of the Homes for Scotland trade body, has called on the government in Scotland to deliver a similar shared equity scheme for the country.
He said that Scotland could be left behind in terms of housing investment if a similar scheme was not launched.
“We have been calling for enhancements to the Scottish government’s shared equity scheme for some time and now urgently need an equivalent commitment north of the border to ensure that households right across the UK enjoy similar support and Scotland is not disadvantaged in relation to attracting investment,” Hogg said.
“The far-reaching benefits associated with home building are well recognized so we obviously very much welcome the focus, long overdue though it may be, given in the Budget, with the key points of the Chancellor’s Help To Buy initiative being a £3.5bn boost to shared equity schemes in England and a guarantee to support £130bn of mortgage lending across the whole UK housing market, which we believe are likely to have a major positive impact.
“The Chancellor demonstrated that he understands the difficulties facing home buyers and our industry, and that he is prepared to act to address them in order to break out of the current economic deadlock.”
Housing production in Scotland has fallen to its lowest level since World War II and the country will face a shortfall of 150,000 new homes over the next 20 years.
