Government’s Starter Homes scheme will be unaffordable to above average income families in Barnet
New research from housing charity Shelter has found that Barnet families even with above average incomes will not be able to afford any properties in the borough built under the Government’s new Starter Homes programme. Local London Assembly Member Andrew Dismore said Shelter’s analysis showed that the scheme was “doomed to fail” and warned it could result in fewer truly affordable homes being built.
The new Starter Homes scheme is set to be the Government’s flagship ‘affordable’ house building programme, with the Prime Minister promising that 200,000 homes will be built by 2020. The homes will be built by private builders and will be sold at 80% of market prices. Shelter’s new report, Starter Homes: will they be affordable?, however found that for above average earners in Barnet the new homes would be unaffordable.
For single earners looking to get on the property ladder, the Starter Homes will be unaffordable to all but the top earners in every London borough.
Mr Dismore said that the policy could cost Londoners dearly, after Shelter warned there was an ‘alarming possibility’ that Starter Homes could be funded by hugely cutting the subsidy for genuinely affordable housing for low and middle-earners.
Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore AM said:
“Shelter’s analysis strongly suggests that the Government’s new Starter Homes programme is doomed to fail. Not only will these new homes only be affordable for those on very high incomes in the capital, the signs are that the Government will raid the affordable housing budget to pay for them, resulting in fewer, not more, genuinely affordable homes being built. “Token schemes like this, which appear to move pots of money around instead of actually increasing investment in housing, will not help. The Government needs to take the housing crisis seriously. That means properly funding Housing Associations to build social and shared ownership housing and removing the arbitrary cap on council investment in new homes. Starter Homes which are unaffordable to the vast majority of the population are not part of the solution.”
