Coaliton's NewBuy housing scheme is a 95 per cent failure, official figures reveal.

[Mr Angry]

"A coalition plan to get 100,000 people on to the property ladder by helping them buy new-build properties has actually helped just over 5,000 individuals, official figures have revealed.

The Government's NewBuy scheme, launched by George Osborne in his Autumn Statement three years ago, involves guaranteeing mortgages for first-time buyers who have a deposit as small as 5 per cent."


Independent

I am sure those five and a half thousand* people/families who benefited from it don't think it is a failure.....

I see the Indy didn't mention the Help to Buy scheme, which has helped nearly 36,000 people/families buy a house, 83% of which were first-time buyers.

The main points are:

• in the first 19 months (to 31 October 2014), 35,962 properties were bought (legal completions) with the support of the Help to Buy: equity loan scheme
• the majority of sales were to first-time buyers, representing 83% of total sales
• the average (mean) purchase price was £211,217

*got to love the Indy's rounding down.....

[Mr Angry]

I'm sure they most probably don't, Hugh.

It's still an abject failure when compared against the stated target though (whether rounded down or not).

EDIT.

Err, I think you'll find it did mention the Help to Buy scheme.

"The Chancellor said NewBuy would rebalance the property market, by stimulating prices outside London and the South East, and contribute to economic growth.He later launched Help to Buy, in which the government underwrites mortgages for first-time buyers on properties up to £600,000. Both schemes have been criticised for fuelling an already buoyant property market in the South East."

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

"The Chancellor said NewBuy would rebalance the property market, by stimulating prices outside London and the South East, and contribute to economic growth.He later launched Help to Buy, in which the government underwrites mortgages for first-time buyers on properties up to £600,000. Both schemes have been criticised for fuelling an already buoyant property market in the South East."[/I]

I really hope that isn't a direct quote. If the man thinks increasing property prices contribute to economic growth he's an idiot. They have a temporary feel good effect then it hits home to people they're mortgaged to the hilt, have less disposable income, and have been borrowing to maintain their lifestyle as their mortgage repayments are huge.

To rebalance the property market we need a ton more supply, especially in the South East, and for prices nationwide to return to something like sanity. We need prices in the South East to at most stabilise and ideally slowly fall, not for the rest of the country to catch up!

A healthy property market doesn't have a quarter of those in private rented accommodation claiming housing benefit, the rate of home ownership dropping in every demographic apart from retirees, and government actively putting taxpayers' money behind propping up house prices while actively dissuading local authorities from building affordable properties. Pretty much everywhere else you could mention investment in housing isn't considered as public debt. Here, of course, it conveniently is. Could be changed easily enough but might threaten the value of the investment property portfolios of the 1/3rd of MPs who are landlords.

Still if that is a direct quote or a summary it's good to know that the taxes of millions of priced out renters are going towards a policy intended to prop up and increase house prices.

Of course the alternative is Labour, the ******s who ensured a massive housing boom by ensuring housing costs weren't taken into account by the BoE for the purposes of interest rates. Inflated by Labour, prevented from fully deflating by Labour, coalition attempting to reinflate.