BUDGET 2013: New Initiatives to Boost Housing Industry 

As George Osborne reveals the details of today’s Budget, Richard Conroy, CEO of Yorkshire property developer Conroy Brook, welcomes the initiatives that are to be introduced to help kick-start the housing industry.

The first initiative from Mr Osborne is a new help-to-buy scheme from 2014. He said: “This will allow you to put down a 5% deposit, with the government offering a 20% loan. It will be repaid when you sell. It will apply to new homes worth less than £600,000 - which is 90% of homes. This will not increase the deficit, because the loans will be secured against assets.”

The second initiative to be implemented is a mortgage guarantee scheme which will help lenders provide loans to people without deposits. According to Mr Osborne, this will encourage lending worth £130bn. “A scheme of this kind has never been tried in the UK,” he says.

In addition the Government will also offer interest-free loans for five years if people want to buy new-build homes. The loans will be worth up to 20% of the value of a newly-built homes, with the buyer contributing 5% as a deposit.

The loans will be available to anyone who wants to buy a new-built home worth up to £600,000 and repaid only when the property is sold.

Mr Osborne also confirmed plans to build 15,000 new affordable homes, increase the funding available for building for rent, and extend the Right to Buy scheme.

In response to the plans, Richard Conroy said: “It is positive to see that the government recognises the importance of getting Britain building, as the local authorities and planners don’t and there is a logjam. The government is trying to force through these ‘top down’ measures to free things up, which is badly needed and very welcome.

The Build for Rent fund – which will be expanded from £200 million originally announced to £1 billion – is also very important and something we will be looking at closely going forward.”