First-time buyer schemes

With the end of Help-To-Buy Equity Loans there isn't currently a natural successor to help first-time buyers onto the property ladder, which is a shame. That being said, it is very difficult to design and implement any form of a scheme that can and does help the right people, whilst also not driving up property prices artificially. Property in the UK is too expensive as it is, the last thing we need is further price growth driven by millions of pounds of tax-payer cash, or we risk ending up with a property market that is reliant on government subsidies to function.

The First Home Scheme and Shared ownership are currently seen as the two options available. Share ownership has been around for a long time now and has never really gained enough traction to bridge the gap of helping more first-time buyers onto the property ladder. So far the appetite for the first home scheme seems low and doesn't appear to be as freely available as help to buy was before the scheme closed and there has left a gaping hole in the property market since this closed.

The common sense approach would be to launch a similar scheme to help to buy as it had a huge success in creating a large number of new homeowners which we don't see the current options generating.

Shared ownership and the now defunct Help to Buy scheme simply address the symptoms of a dysfunctional housing market. The latter was designed for the house builders' benefit, not first-time buyers. Neither would be 'needed' if house prices were at four or five times average earnings, their historical average, rather than the eight times they are now.

I'd like to see house prices included in the two per cent inflation target. This would allow average earnings to catch up over time. Then property truly would be affordable