The government is introducing a series of measures to boost housebuilding so more young people can own their own home.

The key measures include building discounted homes for first time buyers on all “reasonable-sized” developments, unlocking public land for hundreds of thousands of new homes and supporting small building firms with planning changes.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “For too long an entire generation has been locked out of home ownership, with home ownership levels amongst 25 to 34 year olds falling from 59% to 36% over the last 10 years.”

To address the problem, various housing schemes, which have already proved successful, will be extended. These include:

• Help to Buy. This has already helped more than 100,000 people into their own homes by helping with the cost of a deposit. It will be extended until 2020.
• Starter Homes. These are exclusively for first time buyers under 40 and are sold at a 20% discount. The government says all reasonable-sized housing developments must now include starter homes. It wants 200,000 properties to be built over the next five years.
• Right to Buy. Housing association tenants are being given the opportunity to buy their own home and ensuring that, like local authority tenants, they will get a discount of up to 70% – bringing them on a par with the benefits already enjoyed by council tenants across the country.

The government also wants to help small firms to build more houses by obliging local authorities to make more plots available.

In addition, there will be a series of planning reforms, with local people being given more say on where new homes should go and what they should look like.

The measures will be outlined in the Housing Bill to be introduced in the autumn. We shall keep clients informed of developments.

Please contact us if you would like advice about the legal aspects of buying or selling a home.