As part of the November Spending Review, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the government is allocating £5.2bn to the new English Help to Buy scheme launching in April 2021. The fund will be split over two years, with £2.2bn given in the first year of the scheme and £3bn in the second.
Some industry voices have suggested that this is less funding than was originally suggested; when the renewed scheme was announced in 2018, it was thought funding may have been up to £8.5bn over the two years. However, the £5.2bn that has been allocated is roughly in line with what has been spent per year on the current scheme.
The chancellor has also announced a £7.1bn Home Building Fund, which is intended to ‘unlock up to 860,000 homes’ through ‘capital grant funding, including for land remediation, infrastructure investment, and land assembly’, along with investment in a Help to Build scheme and Brownfield sites. All of this investment is on top of the 12.2bn Affordable Housing Programme that has previously been announced.
The government’s continued investment in housing and construction is good news for the new build industry, creating more opportunities for growth and employment across the country.
Chancellor announces £7bn National Home Building Fund | Mortgage Strategy
Government set to spend £5.2bn on new Help to Buy scheme | News | Building
Government announces £2.3bn for housing as part of new four-year package | News | Housing Today
Spending Review 2020 speech – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
