In 2004, John Prescott, the then deputy prime minister, announced plans to help first time buyers by providing homes for £60,000.
At the time, Prescott noted that the average price of a first time buyer home had tripled to £220,000 since the labour party came to power in 1997. His solution was to challenge the construction sector to build properties for £60,000. He said this would be possible if they used modern construction methods, such as building homes off-site.
Under Prescott’s scheme, first time buyers would just buy the property, not the land it was situated on. The government would keep the land in trust and lease it for housing.
The scheme became known as the Design for Manufacture scheme and ten developments were given the go-ahead, although two have not materialised.
One that did proceed is Oxley Woods, an estate of 115 eco-friendly homes in Milton Keynes. However, what happened to the £60,000 price tag? One first time buyer said she had not heard of anybody buying a house on the estate for £60,000. She bought her property, a three bedroom house, for £210,000 in 2008 and yet the property was originally supposed to be one of 65 £60,000 homes.
The present government is also keen to help first time buyers and George Osborne recently announced the FirstBuy loan scheme. The coalition intends to work with house builders to help 10,000 first timers raise the deposit they need to get a contractor mortgage.
Campbell Robb, from Shelter, recently warned that the only way these type of government schemes will work is if we keep an eye on the way house prices rise, more land is released and homes are built in the right places.
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