Teacher priced out of HomeBuy
A key worker found the government's new housing initiative would require a mortgage of eight times his salary.
Rupert Jones reports
Saturday October 21, 2006
The Guardian
it's been hailed as the answer to thousands of first-time buyers' prayers, but a new government scheme to give people a leg-up on the property ladder will do little to help some of those key workers most in need of assistance, it was claimed this week.
John Hartley, who teaches children with severe learning difficulties, is precisely the sort of person you would imagine would stand to benefit from the recently launched Open Market HomeBuy initiative offering cut-priced mortgages. But sky-high property prices in the London borough where he lives and works mean that, with his salary, he is unlikely to be able to access the scheme.
He feels as if, rather than getting closer, the property ladder is being pulled ever further out of his reach. And he's almost certainly far from alone.
To add insult to injury, it emerged last weekend that subsidised flats meant for teachers and nurses are ending up in the hands of people who are not key workers. An investigation by the BBC's Five Live Report that centred on Chelsea Bridge Wharf in London found many flats had gone to well-paid professionals and top executives.
The Open Market HomeBuy scheme was launched with much fanfare three weeks ago. Under this initiative, homebuyers have to take out a mortgage for 75% of the purchase price, with the government and mortgage lenders sharing the rest of the cost.
Housing minister Yvette Cooper said this shared equity scheme would help an extra 20,000 people buy their own home between now and 2010. It is primarily for key public sector workers in London, the south-east and East Anglia.
Mr Hartley, 34, says that when he read about the new scheme, it just left him feeling frustrated about the lack of opportunities available to people in his position. He has written to Ms Cooper to ask "what advice (and hope?) you can offer my family and I as we contemplate the available options: housing benefit and the permanent insecurity of private renting, overcrowding in our present home, and unaffordable home ownership".
Mr Hartley, his partner and their three children - a boy aged nine, a girl aged seven, and a four-month-old son - are squeezed into a two-bedroom council flat in the London borough of Harrow, where he works.
He says that a glance through the local paper suggests that on average, three-bedroom houses in Harrow typically sell for £300,000-plus. For him to be able to afford a suitable home on the open market, he would have to take out a mortgage for 10 times his annual salary - clearly not a realistic proposition. Under Open Market HomeBuy, he would "only" have to raise three-quarters of the purchase price - meaning the mortgage required would still be getting on for eight times his salary.
Mr Hartley says that they are luckier than some; at least they have a place to live. But with their new arrival, things are cramped and they are on the waiting list for a three-bedroom property. Only one problem: he was told that the average wait for transfer into a three-bedroom home was six years, while the longest wait was 15 years... by which time his oldest child would be almost 25.
Can that possibly be right? It appears it is; Harrow Council told Guardian Money that, "unfortunately," severe shortages of housing mean the average wait is five to six years.
The family tried privately rented accommodation but, says Mr Hartley, their first six years of family life saw them caught in a poverty trap in which any increase in salary was offset by deductions in assistance with rent. They had to leave their first home when the owners decided to sell, and their second was uninhabitable after a motorist crashed her car into their living room.
A few years ago, he looked at what he would be able to afford to buy, and this month he revisited the exercise. "Five years ago I'd have been able to buy in three London boroughs and dozens of other unitary authorities across the country. Now it is probably less than 20 unitary authorities - and none in London." The places where he could in theory afford to buy are predominantly in north-east England and in Wales. "A long way to commute," as he puts it.
Mr Hartley says that while the concept of helping key workers to buy a home is laudable, this latest initiative fails to address the fundamental underlying problem: house prices are excessively high, not helped by the laws preventing councils building new homes and the buy-to-let frenzy - "and first-time buyers are not exclusively single, or childless couples".
A spokeswoman for the Department for Communities and Local Government says Ms Cooper's reply to Mr Hartley's letter should have dropped through his letterbox yesterday or this morning.
She adds that the department is "aware of these difficulties" but there are other schemes in addition to Open Market HomeBuy which he may be eligible for. "We do acknowledge there is a need for larger properties, both to rent and to own. Through the planning system we are seeking to ensure a range of houses are built, not just one-bedroom flats."
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The solution to the problem is as simple as prayer to God - put 200% Capital Gains tax on unholy profits received by atheist paganists all around the country: this will teach 'em!
Chico
A key worker found the government's new housing initiative would require a mortgage of eight times his salary.
Rupert Jones reports
Saturday October 21, 2006
The Guardian
it's been hailed as the answer to thousands of first-time buyers' prayers, but a new government scheme to give people a leg-up on the property ladder will do little to help some of those key workers most in need of assistance, it was claimed this week.
John Hartley, who teaches children with severe learning difficulties, is precisely the sort of person you would imagine would stand to benefit from the recently launched Open Market HomeBuy initiative offering cut-priced mortgages. But sky-high property prices in the London borough where he lives and works mean that, with his salary, he is unlikely to be able to access the scheme.
He feels as if, rather than getting closer, the property ladder is being pulled ever further out of his reach. And he's almost certainly far from alone.
To add insult to injury, it emerged last weekend that subsidised flats meant for teachers and nurses are ending up in the hands of people who are not key workers. An investigation by the BBC's Five Live Report that centred on Chelsea Bridge Wharf in London found many flats had gone to well-paid professionals and top executives.
The Open Market HomeBuy scheme was launched with much fanfare three weeks ago. Under this initiative, homebuyers have to take out a mortgage for 75% of the purchase price, with the government and mortgage lenders sharing the rest of the cost.
Housing minister Yvette Cooper said this shared equity scheme would help an extra 20,000 people buy their own home between now and 2010. It is primarily for key public sector workers in London, the south-east and East Anglia.
Mr Hartley, 34, says that when he read about the new scheme, it just left him feeling frustrated about the lack of opportunities available to people in his position. He has written to Ms Cooper to ask "what advice (and hope?) you can offer my family and I as we contemplate the available options: housing benefit and the permanent insecurity of private renting, overcrowding in our present home, and unaffordable home ownership".
Mr Hartley, his partner and their three children - a boy aged nine, a girl aged seven, and a four-month-old son - are squeezed into a two-bedroom council flat in the London borough of Harrow, where he works.
He says that a glance through the local paper suggests that on average, three-bedroom houses in Harrow typically sell for £300,000-plus. For him to be able to afford a suitable home on the open market, he would have to take out a mortgage for 10 times his annual salary - clearly not a realistic proposition. Under Open Market HomeBuy, he would "only" have to raise three-quarters of the purchase price - meaning the mortgage required would still be getting on for eight times his salary.
Mr Hartley says that they are luckier than some; at least they have a place to live. But with their new arrival, things are cramped and they are on the waiting list for a three-bedroom property. Only one problem: he was told that the average wait for transfer into a three-bedroom home was six years, while the longest wait was 15 years... by which time his oldest child would be almost 25.
Can that possibly be right? It appears it is; Harrow Council told Guardian Money that, "unfortunately," severe shortages of housing mean the average wait is five to six years.
The family tried privately rented accommodation but, says Mr Hartley, their first six years of family life saw them caught in a poverty trap in which any increase in salary was offset by deductions in assistance with rent. They had to leave their first home when the owners decided to sell, and their second was uninhabitable after a motorist crashed her car into their living room.
A few years ago, he looked at what he would be able to afford to buy, and this month he revisited the exercise. "Five years ago I'd have been able to buy in three London boroughs and dozens of other unitary authorities across the country. Now it is probably less than 20 unitary authorities - and none in London." The places where he could in theory afford to buy are predominantly in north-east England and in Wales. "A long way to commute," as he puts it.
Mr Hartley says that while the concept of helping key workers to buy a home is laudable, this latest initiative fails to address the fundamental underlying problem: house prices are excessively high, not helped by the laws preventing councils building new homes and the buy-to-let frenzy - "and first-time buyers are not exclusively single, or childless couples".
A spokeswoman for the Department for Communities and Local Government says Ms Cooper's reply to Mr Hartley's letter should have dropped through his letterbox yesterday or this morning.
She adds that the department is "aware of these difficulties" but there are other schemes in addition to Open Market HomeBuy which he may be eligible for. "We do acknowledge there is a need for larger properties, both to rent and to own. Through the planning system we are seeking to ensure a range of houses are built, not just one-bedroom flats."
----------
The solution to the problem is as simple as prayer to God - put 200% Capital Gains tax on unholy profits received by atheist paganists all around the country: this will teach 'em!
Chico
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