100,000 cut-price homes available to first-time buyers

The UK's new Start Homes scheme has now officially launched, offering 100,000 cut-price homes to first-time buyers with 20 per cent off their asking price.

The discount is made possible by cutting planning requirements, allowing house builders to slash 20 per cent off the usual price.

With average house prices for first time buyers in England standing at around £218,000, a new Starter Home could save young first time buyers across the country an average of £43,000, designed to help them onto the housing ladder.

Thanks to changes in planning policy, builders that develop commercial and industrial land that is either unusable or surplus for the new starter homes will be able to save on costs by freeing them from the requirement to provide affordable housing. In return, they will have to offer the homes at a minimum 20 per cent discount to the market price to first-time buyers under 40.

The country’s leading home builders and councils have already have said they would consider bringing forward land to develop the new homes from this year, and from Monday, will be able to start submitting their plans to get work started and pass the savings onto home buyers as soon as possible.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: "The number of first-time buyers is already at a seven-year high and these Starter Homes, available at a 20 per cent discount, will help even more people realise their dream of home ownership."

The welcome has not been unanimously positive, though. Alister Scott, Professor of Environmental and Spatial Planning at Birmingham City University, argues that the scheme will leave homes without valuable infrastructure.

"In order to pay for the discount homes, Cameron will be waiving the fees that developers normally pay to local planning authorities. These fees usually provide vital infrastructure that new houses need - such as access roads, health and other community services and green infrastructure and drainage systems. This is like a Ryanair approach to housing, reducing basic services to a minimal level," he comments.

"The government are taking away a provision to secure affordable housing and giving back a bodged scheme that will likely lead to more community disintegration and polarisation, as new communities are not going to be serviced by resources and services that homes and communities need."