Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced the launch of “Your First Home,” a new housing initiative designed to assist first-time buyers in England who lack support from the “bank of mum and dad.” The scheme targets individuals with a regular income who have struggled to accumulate significant savings for a property deposit. Under this policy, eligible first-time buyers will be offered a 20% equity loan to facilitate the purchase of new-build homes, with the requirement of a minimum deposit set at just 2.5%.
Speaking on the eve of the Labour party conference in Liverpool, Burnham emphasized the urgency of the situation, noting that many young people feel increasingly despondent about the prospect of home ownership. He described the initiative as a way to provide keys to their own front doors while simultaneously offering developers the necessary confidence to increase the supply of high-quality housing across the country.
The programme includes specific income and deposit caps intended to ensure the support is directed toward those who need it most, rather than high earners or those with significant savings. By focusing on modest housing, the government aims to prevent the scheme from driving up property prices. The initiative is set to be officially detailed by John Healey in the upcoming budget, with registration expected to open before the end of 2026. Funding for the project will be sourced from existing government budget reprioritizations, with developers also paying fees based on property values to assist with administrative costs. Or would mean cuts elsewhere, it was not immediately clear whether the money would come from funding already earmarked for housebuilding. Which will contribute to its running costs, developers will pay a fee related to property values to participate.
This policy marks a departure from previous internal government debates, where former chancellor Rachel Reeves had initially prioritized housing supply over the reintroduction of a help-to-buy model. While the government remains committed to an ambitious target of building 1.5 million homes in England by the next election, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner recently acknowledged that achieving this goal remains a challenge.
The “Your First Home” initiative follows a legacy of similar state-backed interventions. The original help-to-buy scheme, introduced by George Osborne in 2013, supported approximately 387,000 buyers. By 2014-15, such schemes were involved in about one-fifth of all first-time buyer purchases. Despite past criticisms regarding their cost-effectiveness and impact on house prices, a recent government review highlighted that these measures generated £25bn in social value during the last financial year. Under which 387,000 people were supported, after concerns it was targeted at those who would have got on the housing ladder anyway and contributed to soaring house prices, some changes have been made to George Osborne’s original scheme. He launched a second version, later that year. Both applied to homes worth up to £600,000, and by 2014-15, they supported about a fifth of first-time buyer purchases. But were criticised for failing to help those who needed them most, the schemes proved popular.
Beyond the new equity loan program, the government is moving to empower local authorities to address the issue of vacant properties. New plans will update empty dwelling management orders (Edmos), enabling councils to bring more than 300,000 long-term empty homes back into use. Under the updated regulations, the threshold for a property to be classified as eligible for an Edmo will be reduced from two years of vacancy to just six months. Furthermore, the administrative process for local councils will be simplified, removing the need for rigorous evidence submissions to residential property tribunals. This change is intended to prevent properties from falling into disrepair and to accelerate their availability for families in need. Reversing changes made by the Conservatives, burnham also unveiled plans to strengthen the powers of local leaders to take over long-term empty and derelict homes.
