The new Economic Secretary and Housing Minister will host major high street banks and Nationwide Building Society today (Wednesday 10 September) as the Government focuses on increasing homeownership and delivering more affordable housing as part of its Plan for Change.
Lucy Rigby and Matthew Pennycook will call on lenders to make first-time buyers their top priority, taking advantage of the Leeds Reforms announced by the Chancellor in July to help more people with small deposits and low incomes get a mortgage.
Those changes are expected to help up to 36,000 extra first-time buyers secure their own home in the first year alone, while the Financial Conduct Authority is simplifying mortgage lending rules such as affordability checks so that more people can borrow within safe and regulated limits.
Nationwide has already announced plans to support an additional 10,000 first-time buyers by lowering income thresholds for its popular ‘Helping Hand’ mortgage.
INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS
Today’s roundtable follows a meeting last week with building societies where lenders explained how some of their most innovative products could help thousands more struggling to get on the housing ladder, including safely rolling out no and low deposit mortgages for customers with strong credit ratings.
The Building Societies Association also shared its working on a campaign to raise awareness of these new initiatives, tackling the gap in customer knowledge and helping more buyers realise they can afford homes they thought were out of reach.
Lucy Rigby (main picture), Economic Secretary to the Treasury, says: “Helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder is central to our Plan for Change.
“That’s why I’m bringing lenders together to make mortgages more accessible and to highlight new options for first-time buyers – all with the aim of helping more people to achieve the dream of homeownership.”
FIRST-TIME BUYER HELP
Robin Fieth, Chief Executive of the Building Societies Association, adds: “We welcome the government’s efforts to support first-time buyers and are pleased to see engagement with building societies and other lenders on how to better support people who can demonstrate affordability but have been excluded by outdated regulations.
“Building societies have always led the way in developing innovative solutions to help people into homeownership, and we are ready to do more.”
