Brown’s Housing Help
May 15, 2008 – 10:14 amBeleaguered Gordon Brown yesterday began his fightback from the political abyss by announcing a series of initiatives. Of most interest to uktenant.info readers were his housing plans. £200 million is to be made available to purchase unsold new homes which will be rented out as "social" housing or sold as "shared ownership" properties. A further £100 million will also be available to assist first-time buyers in buying homes on a shared equity basis. It remains to be seen how eligibility for the social rentals will be determined. The current "key worker" criteria seems much too narrow. Both moves are obviously to be welcomed, but one has to question why it has taken Brown's virtual extinction for the government to announce these plans. While undoubtedly a step in the right direction, one must also question whether the scale of the assistance will be more than a drop in the ocean given the numbers ...
