Crawley MP, Henry Smith, has welcomed a package of support announced earlier today by the Chancellor of the Exchequer designed to support aspiring home owners hoping to get onto the housing ladder.

Through the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme, the Government will provide an equity loan worth up to 20 per cent of the value of a new build home, repayable once the home is sold, and available anybody looking to buy properties up to the value of £600,000.

In addition, the Government will also create an incentivising mortgage guarantee for lenders who offer mortgages to people with a deposit of between 5 and 20 per cent on homes up to the value of £600,000.

Welcoming the package, Henry said:

“The Chancellor hit the nail on the head in designing his Budget to support our ‘aspiration nation’.

“As part of this, far from pursuing Labour’s planned course of action by introducing a Homes Tax which would punish hard working, aspiring families, the Chancellor has today pledged to provide the funding to enable people to foot the deposit needed to purchase a home.

“This in turn will help supply the funding stimulus to help drive the construction industry and provide the thousands of new affordable homes across the country which Labour allowed to fall to such perilously low levels – the lowest since the 1920s - resulting in over 1.8 million people landed on housing waiting lists.

“With new home builds going up on the Kilnwood Vale estate and a new neighbourhood now being planned for the North East Sector of Crawley, the Government’s Help to Buy package provides a seriously enticing opportunity for local residents to secure their own places on the housing ladder.”

The package comes along side a commitment to fund a further 15,000 affordable homes in England by 2015 and to reduce the qualifying period for Right to Buy tenants from five to three years.

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