The Conservative Party has announced plans to make home owning more accessible for young people with a pledge to build 100,000 starter homes – which young people will be able to buy at a discounted price. First-time buyers under the age of 40 will be eligible for a 20% discount on the market value of these houses.
Prime Minister David Cameron stated that the homes would be built on former commercial brownfield sites. The 20% discount would be available by exempting the homes from several different taxes, including scrapping section 106 requirements that dictate companies must build a certain proportion of affordable homes in each development, and the zero-carbon homes standard. Many of the first-time buyers who purchase these starter homes at a discount will also be eligible for the Help to Buy scheme.
The UK’s housing crisis has been a hot topic during the political conference season. Previously on the Integrity Construction blog we reported on the CBI’s call for house building rates to double, in order to ease the strain on the market. The organisation states that this aim could be achieved by improving political certainty, reviewing the extent of green belts and introducing a more flexible planning system. We also covered Labour’s plans for a Help to Build scheme, which would assist SMEs with finance for certain construction projects.
As the general election nears, we expect the coverage of housing and construction issues to further intensify. If you’d like your construction company to have some stability during this uncertain and turbulent period, you may wish to invest in some job costing software, capable of helping you to track the costs of each of your projects – and avoid any risky jobs in the future.
