HOUSING HAND OUT TO THE RICH
It is no surprise that the Conservatives choose to hand out money to the rich, but the fact that they do it pretending to be helping to solve the crisis that is in part created by the right to buy. The BBC article reproduced below show it helps those who don’t need it, whilst those without the high wages are stuck with bedroom tax.
About
4,000 households in England earning more than £100,000 annually are in the Help
to Buy Equity Loan scheme.
Official
figures to December 2016 show more than 20,000 households who are not
first-time buyers have been helped.
The
initiative, which started in April 2013, aims to make buying a home more
affordable.
But
research conducted for the government found that just over half of those who
signed up to it said they could have afforded to buy without access to the
scheme.
Help to Buy was launched by then Chancellor George Osborne to attempt
to encourage more housebuilding.
The
government offers a 20% equity loan to buyers of newly-built properties and 40%
in London, on properties worth up to £600,000.
The
buyers have to put down a 5% deposit and, when the property is sold, the
government reclaims its loan.
This
means if the value of the home goes up, the government will make a profit.
Similar
schemes were set up and have now ended in Scotland and Wales.
Labour's
shadow housing secretary John Healey said: "While the number of younger
people who own a first home is in freefall, the number of government-backed
affordable homes to buy has fallen by two-thirds since 2010 and badly targeted
schemes like Help to Buy are not focused on those who most need a hand .
"Labour
would change that and make helping first-time buyers on ordinary incomes the
priority for Help to Buy."
Gavin
Barwell, the housing and planning minister, said: "We're committed to
helping more people find a home of their own with the support of a range of
low-cost home ownership products.
"Our
Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme continues to make home ownership a reality for
thousands of people, especially first-time buyers right across the
country."
The
government said it had committed £8.6 billion for the Help to Buy Equity Loan
scheme to allow it to run in England until 2021.
