Cash help for key workers

Jan 7 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

KEY workers, including nurses, police and teachers, in West Yorkshire are to be given new support to help them on to the housing ladder.

Housing Minister Yvette Cooper announced new plans to make loans more easily available to the workers, using shared equity schemes.

Soaring house prices and rising housing demand has meant many key workers are increasingly finding it difficult to buy a home in the region.

Rising economic growth and household growth in Yorkshire means there is growing demand for housing, but the number of new homes in the region has not kept up.

Now the Government wants more to be done to increase access to low cost homes for key workers and other first-time buyers in West Yorkshire.

Up to now shared equity and shared ownership homes have predominately been available in the South-East, but the Government wants to see more people take up these opportunities in all parts of the country.

Shared equity loans could boost purchasing power by up to 32.5% or help people buy a part share in a newly built home.

That’s why the Government is simplifying the rules and launching a new campaign to make it easier to get help.

Currently, a family on a combined income of £40,000 could typically obtain a mortgage of just £160,000.

But if they were eligible for the Government's low-cost home ownership scheme they could potentially buy a home worth around £200,000.

Measures being announced to target support at key workers are:

A new campaign to provide information about the housing support available at their work place.

Clarifying the rule book to make sure all key workers in the region know they are eligible to apply for housing help.

Setting out for the first time that key workers are a priority for support in the West Yorkshire when applications to the low-cost home ownership programme are considered.

Ms Cooper said: “Over the last 10 years we have helped some 80,000 families to buy an affordable home.

But we want to do more.That's why we want to make it easier for nurses, teachers and other first-time buyers to get support to help them on to the housing ladder and are building more thousands more homes over the long-term.”

The 80,000 households helped include 9,000 teachers, 10,000 nurses and health workers and 3,000 police officers and front-line police staff and other essential public service employees.