- Ministers will call on lenders to make first-time buyers
their top priority as the government accelerates mortgage reforms
and builds 1.5 million new homes
- Roundtable follows the biggest regulatory overhaul to
supercharge home ownership by letting lenders offer more
mortgages at over 4.5 times buyers' income
The new Economic Secretary and Housing Minister will host major
high street banks tomorrow (10 September) as the government
focuses on increasing homeownership and delivering more
affordable housing as part of our Plan for Change.
and 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.
Tomorrow'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. The
government will continue to explore how it can back this effort.
, Economic Secretary to the
Treasury, said:
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 highlight new options for first-time buyers so
more people can finally own their own home.
Robin Fieth, Chief Executive of the Building Societies
Association, said:
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affordability but have been excluded by outdated regulations.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.
Mike Regnier, Santander UK CEO, said:
We welcome the opportunity to engage with the Economic Secretary
and the Housing Minister on the future of home ownership,
building on the work that has already been done to enable lenders
to support more homeowners and first-time-buyers realise their
homebuying aspirations.
More information
- At the first roundtable on the 3 September senior
representatives from the Building Societies Association, Skipton,
Yorkshire, Cambridge, Leeds, Bath and Coventry Building Societies
were in attendance.
- At the second roundtable on the 10th September senior
representatives Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, Natwest,
Santander, UK Finance will be in attendance.
