The government's 'affordable housing' programme will now include Starter Homes as well as properties for rent, and old rules requiring developers to provide a certain amount of affordable housing for rental purposes will be scrapped.
In May, the government announced plans to deliver 200,000 Starter Homes by the end of the decade, to be sold to first-time buyers under the age of 40 at 20% discount off the market price.
In his speech, Cameron will pledge a revolution "from generation rent to generation buy" in a bid to accelerate the building of discounted properties for first-time buyers and incentivise developers to build Starter Homes rather than rental properties.
He is expected to say: “Those old rules which said to developers: you can build on this site, but only if you build affordable homes for rent, we’re replacing them with new rules: you can build here, and those affordable homes can be available to buy.
For years politicians have been talking about building what they call affordable homes but the phrase was deceptive. It basically means ones that were only available for rent. What people want are homes they can actually own.
When a generation of hardworking men and women in their 20s and 30s are waking up each morning in their childhood bedrooms, that should be a wake-up call for all of us. We need a national crusade to get houses built. That means banks lending, government releasing land and, yes, planning being reformed.”
Luke Jooste, head of real estate finance at Funding Circle, said: "All of the political parties have failed to address a major issue holding back housebuilding: a lack of finance for small developers, who are the bedrock of a healthy market. To meet demand, Britain needs to get finance to more small developers, whose market share has fallen from two-thirds in 1988 to just over a quarter in 2013. Large developers can only meet 50 to 60% of demand, yet smaller developers continue to struggle to access finance through high street banks due to capital requirements and legacy issues from the financial crisis. More needs to be done to make small developers aware of the alternative finance options available to them. Online marketplaces are able to deliver the same level of credit assessment in a matter of weeks rather than months."
