In his leader’s speech to the Tory conference, the Prime Minister is set to unveil proposals to help him hit his manifesto pledge to build 200,000 more “low-cost” homes for first-time buyers by 2020.
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“There’s nothing wrong with helping people on to the property ladder, but the Government has to invest in genuinely affordable homes to buy and rent for all of those on ordinary incomes who are bearing the brunt of this crisis”.
At present, many developers are shy of building “affordable housing” for rent as they believe it fails to generate enough returns on their investment, but offering the homes for sale will make it easier to get schemes off the ground, Downing Street says. “What people want are homes that they can actually own”. They claim to be the party of home ownership but on their watch it has fallen every year for the past five years and is now at its lowest level for a generation – for those under 35, it’s down by over a fifth. That means banks lending, government releasing land yes – planning being reformed.
The Conservative leader will say: [We] know this: Nothing is written. “Our party, the Conservative Party, the party of home ownership in Britain today”.
‘When a generation of hardworking men and women in their 20s and 30s are waking up each morning in their childhood bedrooms, that should be a wakeup call for us, ‘ Cameron is expected to say.
“After five years of failure on housing, the millions of people struggling to cope with their housing costs deserve a real plan for more affordable homes to rent and buy”.
“This has been raised with the Saudis… we totally disapprove of of what they do in terms of the death penalty which we object to in every country”, he said. In the closing speech to Tory activists at the annual party conference, he would pledge to transform Britain’s young population from “generation rent to generation buy”.
The change is critical to the government reaching its challenging target ofbuilding 200,000 starter homes over this parliament and has been long demanded by private sector developers.
One senior Cabinet minister yesterday warned senior Tories including Home Secretary Theresa May and Tory London Mayor Boris Johnson to stop positioning for the Prime Minister’s job.
But Mr Duncan Smith said ministers should focus “a little less on leadership and a little more on delivery”.
But existing rules mean these can not be included in the affordable housing schemes that builders have to provide as part of major developments.
In future, developers will be able to build properties for purchase under the government’s Starter Homes Initiative, which gives first-time buyers a 20-percent discount on market rates.
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Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: “I’m not pitching for the leadership, I can tell you that”.
