Housing Leader comments on the 'Your First Home' scheme and funding for social housing.

James Bailey, Housing Leader, PwC UK

“Today’s Budget offers a welcome, if moderate, response to the housing sector’s priorities: increasing effective demand, addressing viability challenges and boosting supply. The £4.7 billion Your First Home initiative is more modest than Help to Buy but should support first-time buyers and housebuilders. Price caps outside London based on local authority median prices appear reasonable, although early certainty on how they are determined will be important. Together with the higher shared ownership income caps announced earlier this week by the Housing Minister these initiatives should open routes to home ownership for more families. The absence of demand-side measures for Build to Rent and later living will remain a concern. 

"The additional £1.5 billion of grant for 10,000 new social rented homes should target both Registered Providers and councils with investible pipelines that can deliver within this parliamentary term. Stability in building regulations and the removal of brownfield biodiversity requirements should help, although their impact will vary and wider regulatory, tax and levy pressures remain unaddressed. Extending low-cost loans to local authorities should support regeneration, with private capital and delivery partners important where councils lack capacity. The lack of targeted SME support is notable and puts greater focus on the National Housing Bank’s role in safeguarding diversity of supply. Overall, the package provides much-needed support and should be viewed constructively alongside the Government’s wider housing measures, particularly given continuing economic and fiscal constraints.” 

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