Labour reveals plans to extend home ownership
Labour today challenged house builders to design high quality homes with construction costs of £60,000.
It is part of the party’s plans to create one million more homeowners within five years of securing a third term of office.
Public sector land in Milton Keynes, Aylesbury, Northampton and Leeds is being freed up for the construction of nearly 500 homes, with another 500 to follow.
Nearly 100 former NHS sites are also being handed over to the Government’s regeneration agency English Partnerships to oversee the delivery of thousands of homes.
The first sites will be transferred from the Department of Health to English Partnerships next week.
Announcing the plans, Chancellor Gordon Brown said he believed in “a Britain where more and more people must and will have the chance to own their own homes.”
He continued: “With home ownership expanding into new areas and new groups, today I see Britain as one of the world’s greatest wealth owning democracies where the widely held chance for not just some but all to own assets marks out a new dimension in citizenship and makes Britain a beacon for the world.
But Caroline Spelman shadow Secretary of State for Devolved and Local Government said Labour had taxed Britain out of home ownership.
She said: “Mr Blair has helped kick a whole generation off the housing ladder through council tax hikes, freezing stamp duty thresholds and slashing Right to Buy discounts.”
The Government is also considering an extension to its HomeBuy scheme, under which buyers purchase part of a home.
Two variations of the scheme, New Build HomeBuy and Open Market HomeBuy, would simplify assistance for people who want to buy a share of a new home, or a share of a home that is for sale on the open market.
A third variation, Social HomeBuy, would give social tenants who cannot afford to buy their home, an opportunity to buy a share of their home.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said: “Working tenants will be able to realise their home ownership aspirations without leaving their existing home, meaning a better mix of incomes in neighbourhoods, and more sustainable communities.”
The consultation on extending the HomeBuy scheme closes on 24 June 2005.
