Calls for more affordable homes

Steve Punter
The Politics Show
South East

More affordable housing in the region is needed

In our region, even without the credit crunch, it is harder to get your foot on the first rung of the property ladder than elsewhere.

House prices are higher here than the national average.

Sevenoaks for example is one of the most expensive districts in the country, with an average house price of £350,000.

In the whole of the South East, the government wants to see over 200,000 new affordable houses by 2026.

And shared-ownership schemes are a key way to help meet this target.

Shared-ownership is where you part-own, part-rent a house or a flat.

So you own a proportion, say 25%, of the house and you pay rent for the remaining 75%.

Over time you have the option to buy more and more, with the idea that one day, you might be able to afford to own the whole house.

This is already popular in the region, with one in four of the country's shared-ownerships here.

Affordable housing

Typically the schemes are available to key workers and families who earn less than £60,000 between them.

So for many people, it is the only way they can afford to buy a house.

Alistair Darling promised £775m of additional funding for social housing

For example Trevor McLellan of Folkestone, Kent, says his son had no chance of buying out right.

Through this scheme he has got a good house with a mortgage that is probably cheaper than rental.

A year ago Chancellor Alistair Darling promised £775m of additional funding for social housing and regeneration, which includes shared-ownership.

And the schemes have been widely endorsed by all three major political parties. But they are not without their problems.

Empty homes

The National Housing Federation estimates that in the last year, 9,000 low cost homes were left vacant nationwide, even though 90,000 households had expressed an interest in them.

For people who have successfully gone through the process, like Trevor and his son, it can be time-consuming.

Trevor Mclellan explains it is not the most straightforward thing to do.

"There's quite a bit of research and form filling apart from the small matter of going out and finding the right house. It takes quite a lot of time."

They started their search last November and he only moved in two weeks ago.

What do you think?

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