With the announcement by Tony Blair of a commitment to encourage the spread of home-ownership as a key election pledge, the CML is urging the government to implement the five-year housing strategy recently announced by John Prescott.
The CML is pushing the government for necessary support and initial funding for the launch of a public/private partnership to provide more equity loans; to overhaul the benefits system to remove the bias against owner-occupation and bring home-owners on a level footing with tenants; and to reform stamp duty, both by raising the £60,000 starting threshold and scrapping the current system whereby duty is levied at the highest marginal rate on the whole of the price of a property.
Michael Coogan, the CML’s director-general, said: “We are not surprised that the Prime Minister has put the economy and housing right at the top of his list of election pledges. More than 80 per cent of people want to be owner-occupiers and surveys show that home-owners are consistently happier with their housing than tenants.”
Stuart Bernau, executive director at Nationwide Building Society, also welcomed Labour’s first-time buyer pledge and outlined the key areas for further support. He called on lenders to withdraw higher lending charges for first-time buyers and place more emphasis on affordability rather than just income multiples.
He said: “To keep the first-time buyer market healthy and buoyant we need a diverse range of buyers and sellers. There are a number of ways the government and the financial services industry could help first-time buyers”
