, Labour’s Shadow Housing
Secretary, commenting on mortgage rates hitting 6.66 per
cent, said:
“Too often, families who are saving for their first home but
getting no closer to buying it feel like they’re doing something
wrong.
"But the fact of the matter is that the Tories have inflicted
households with a mortgage bombshell, let renters down and failed
to build the homes we need.
"Millions are feeling the pain from this Tory economic
failure.
"Labour has a plan to start fixing this crisis. We would stop
households missing out on the mortgage support they need by
making measures mandatory, we will give greater rights and
protections to renters, and we will take the tough choices to get
Britain building."
Ends
Notes:
Labour’s housing plan:
-
has set out a comprehensive
plan to target a homeownership rate of 70 per cent and 1.5
million new homeowners.
- Labour will introduce a state-backed mortgage insurance
scheme, with the state acting as guarantor for prospective
homeowners who struggle to save for a large deposit. This will be
modelled on similar successful schemes in other countries, such
as Canada and Australia, where mortgage insurance increases the
supply and reduces the cost of high loan-to-value (LTV)
mortgages.
- We will also ensure that first-time buyers can access homes
that are built, by giving them first dibs on new developments in
their area. We will also put an end to the practice of foreign
buyers purchasing swathes of new housing developments off plan,
before they are completed and have been marketed to local
people.
- Labour will reform the planning system to ensure more new
homes can be built, with local people given a meaningful say on
plans for development in their area.
- We will also build more affordable and social homes as part
of our plan to return social housing to the second largest form
of tenure, as well as improving standards and strengthening
tenants’ rights with a Renters’ Charter that will make renting
fairer, more secure and more affordable.
