£21m loaned to Mersey homebuyers in Government scheme

A TOTAL of 646 “affordable” homes are to be built across Liverpool with £14m of Government cash, Liverpool City Council has announced.

And people on Merseyside have borrowed more than £21m to get on the housing ladder.

Four of the city’s housing associations have secured funding from the Homes and Community Agency (HCA) 2015-18 Affordable Homes Programme.

They say they will use it to build properties  over the next four years – made up of 566 rented and 80 for shared ownership.

The four are are: Riverside - 186 units; LHT – 51 units; Liverpool Mutual Homes – 313 units; Plus Dane – 96 units. The homes will be a mix of two, three and four bedroom houses and one and two bedroom apartments. Some will feature energy saving technologies.

 Assistant Mayor and Cabinet member for housing Councillor Ann O’Byrne, said: “We will be making sure that as much of the construction work as possible benefits local firms and local people.

“It is another boost to the Mayor’s pledge to build 5,000 new homes and bring more than 1,000 back into use which we are already on track to exceed.

The LMH development contributes to the Building Our Future partnership announced recently by the city council which will see Redrow and LMH building 1,500 new homes over the next five years. A further 1,000 will be brought back into use in a partnership between LMH and Willmott Dixon.

Meanwhile,  the Government has issued, for the first time, post-code level data on on its Help To Buy programme.

On Merseyside, it says 713 people have taken advantage of the equity loan scheme in which the Government lends a buyer 20 percent of the property purchase price. In the five boroughs that amounts to £21.3 million so far.

Nationally, almost 40,000 households have bought a home through Help to Buy, Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis said.

But the properties purcheased are way below the national average. £208,000 under the equity loan and £151,000 under its mortgage guarantee scheme.

Help to Buy equity loans sales for Merseyside to 30 June 2014

Knowsley	139 (£4,308,537)
St. Helens	180 (£5,726,484)
Liverpool	243 (£7,010,135)
Sefton	103 (£3,096,773)
Wirral	48 (£1,246,203)
Total	713 (£21,338,132)