Prime minister David Cameron has unveiled the government’s long awaited housing strategy pledging to unlock the housing market and ‘get Britain building again’

Mr Cameron promised to ‘break the current cycle in which lenders won’t lend, builders can’t build and buyers can’t buy’.

The strategy, which is fore-worded by Mr Cameron and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, pulls together all the government’s existing housing
policies as well as some new into one 78 page document that outlines plans to use housing to boost the economy.

Mr Cameron claimed the government had inherited a ‘broken housing market’ but promised ‘a shot in the arm by boosting supply, easing financial pressures and helping with demand’.

Branding the strategy ‘radical and unashamedly ambitious’, Mr Cameron outlined plans for a £400 million ‘Get Britain Building’ fund which will enable house builders to restart construction on stalled development sites and build up to 16,000 new homes.

He also said there would £30 million funding support for self builders, a £50 million pot to tackle ‘the national scandal’ of empty homes, a mortgage indemnity scheme to help first time buyers get 95 per cent mortgages and new measures to help elderly people to adapt their homes.

‘We’ll be making it easier for people to secure mortgages on new homes, help people get on the property ladder, address unfairness in social housing and ensure homes that have been left empty for years are lived in once again,’ Mr Cameron said.

He added that the strategy was driven by two aims: driving local economies and creating jobs, and secondly ‘spreading opportunity’.

‘For too long, millions have been locked out of homeownership. We want to build an economy that works for everyone, one in which people who work hard and play by the rules can expect to own a decent home of their own. This goes right to the heart of what this government is about.

The North West Housing Forum have produced a useful summary of the strategy:

summary-of-the-proposals

……….and for those of you with an appetite for the full monty – here you go:

A Housing Stategy for England