According to reports on BBC News, Osborne’s pledges will address a “crisis of home ownership in our country” while promising a “bold plan to back families who aspire to buy their own home”.
The plan, which according to the Treasury is “the biggest affordable housebuilding programme since the 1970s”, will include a £2.3bn fund paid directly to developers to build Starter Homes. A £4bn fund to help build 135,000 Help to Buy: Shared Ownership homes for households earning less than £90,000 in London and £80,000 outside the capital.
The government will also set aside £200m for 10,000 new homes that will enable tenants to stay for five years at a reduced rent to help them save for a deposit, which will see them have first right to buy the home. A further £400m has been earmarked to build 8,000 specialist homes for older people or those with disabilities.
Figures published in August showed that the government failed to meet its annual house building target of 275,000 affordable homes, with just over 131,060 completions in the last year.
At the time of the announcement, Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb said that the Autumn Statement was the government’s last opportunity to show it could turn around the housing crisis.
Despite these figures, house building completions are growing according to government statistics, with a 17% rise recorded in the past 12 months compared to a year earlier.
Further areas expected to be addressed in the Autumn Statement and Spending Review are the government’s planned £4.4bn cuts to working tax credits which the House of Lords voted against last month.
