Calls for Labour to join up first-time buyer schemes

Labour must stitch its scattered first-time buyer schemes into one joined-up strategy, a mortgage broker has warned ahead of next week’s party conference.

Sarah Thompson, group financial services director at Mortgage Scout, part of LRG, said progress had been made on individual measures but they were not yet working together.

She pointed to recent changes to mortgage lending rules, the permanent Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, and a proposed First-Time Buyer ISA now under Government consideration.

Our wish for the Labour Party Conference is for a clear strategy that joins up the different stages of becoming a first-time buyer.”

“Our wish for the Labour Party Conference is for a clear strategy that joins up the different stages of becoming a first-time buyer,” Thompson says.

She suggested that the ISA’s final design needs to reflect what happens once a saver enters the housing market.

Any property price limit should reflect regional differences and move with the market, she says.

At the same time, the support offered needs to make a meaningful contribution towards the deposit buyers need, she adds.

Responsible lending

Thompson explains that buyers who had saved consistently and could sustain their housing costs should have a realistic route to a mortgage, while responsible lending standards continued to protect borrowers.

She says success should not be measured by the number of first-time buyer initiatives.

Instead, she insisted that success needs to be measured by how many people completed the journey from saving to getting the keys.

It follows research by Lloyds suggesting that almost three out of five first-time buyers believe existing debt will block their mortgage approval, and more than a third think a 20% deposit is essential.

Propertymark’s Ian Harris has said affordability, rather than misunderstanding, is what is really keeping first-time buyers out of the market.