New figures show families from all areas of the housing market are becoming homeowners, whether tenants buying their home through the Right to Buy and shared ownership schemes, or people purchasing new build properties through Help to Buy.
Overall the number of homeowners who have been helped to buy or reserve a home is over 112,000 since 2010, with more sales in the pipeline - almost 24,000 of those were social tenants who benefited from the Right to Buy scheme, with the majority of sales since the government reinvigorated the scheme in 2012. Almost 41,000 households have been able to buy their home through affordable schemes, such as shared ownership and almost 48,000 people are being helped to buy their home through Help to Buy and earlier schemes, with over 41,000 in new build homes, and the majority of those first time buyers.
Ministers said such support for home buyers was also getting the country building again. Over 400,000 homes have been built since 2010, and the latest statistics reveal starts on new homes in 2013 totalled 122,590, up by 23% on the previous year, and the highest since 2007.
Eric Pickles said:
"In 2010 we inherited a broken housing market, where buyers couldn’t buy, builders couldn’t build, and lenders couldn’t lend.
"We’re now seeing buyers returning to the market in droves, and new homes being built across the country. Both buying and building are at their highest levels since 2007, underpinned by our action to cut the deficit and keep interest rates low. But there’s still more to do, and improving the housing market will remain a vital part of our long-term economic plan.
"Cash from additional Right to Buy sales is also being recycled back into the development of new affordable homes for rent, with over 2,000 homes already in the pipeline.
The English Housing Survey published yesterday showed that more social tenants in 2012 to 2013 expected to buy the home they live in, and last year the government turned that expectation into action through the Right to Buy.
Kris Hopkins said:
"Our strong support for home ownership is not merely an economic calculation, it’s because we believe in aspiration. That’s why we reinvigorated the Right to Buy, after it was slowly strangled by a miserly cap on discounts, which killed off the prospect of home ownership for most social tenants.
"Strengthening the scheme has made tenants believe they can buy their home, and they are voting with their feet. But we want to go further, so that’s why we’ll soon be ensuring discounts rise with inflation, and increasing maximum discount for houses, so more social tenants can take up their Right to Buy in 2014, and we can reinvest the cash from additional sales back into delivering new affordable homes for rent."
