The target is 74,000 sales in three years. This is excellent news and, with the scheme due to be extended in January for non-new builds, it can only go from strength to strength. The long-term economic outcomes of the scheme are a blog in themselves but we can only work with what we have.
So, will there be a sting in the tail? Hopefully not as all lenders seem to be talking very positively about the scheme and are busy working through the detail on how to launch it and how their systems work.
With only Halifax, Nationwide and Woolwich currently playing volume-wise in this space, the picture will look even healthier when the rest follow.
The key point is that the government needs to take time to watch and take stock. We have seen a plethora of schemes launched by successive governments aimed at either stimulating housing stock or on repossession prevention.
The issue has been that the schemes have either failed due to ill-thought- out processes or superseded by impatience within Whitehall of their success. Whilst it may seem obvious to us that any scheme needs time to work through, the challenge for lenders is changing systems and procedures to process them. These cannot be changed overnight.
What we have seen are lenders coming to market a few months post initial announcement only to see a new initiative launched four weeks later. This does not give lenders the confidence to plan.
So my simple message to the government is for once feel free to sit on your hands a while. You may have created a market changing scheme so let it run its course. Sound bites and short-term headline schemes may win elections but they will not revive the economy.
Martin Reynolds is chief executive at SimplyBiz Mortgages
