Construction of starter homes to begin this year

The government has announced that thousands of starter homes will be built in 2017.

The new homes will be available for first time buyers between 23 and 40 years of age with a discount of at least 20% below market value.

The homes will be built on brownfield sites across the country, with 30 local authority partnerships picked on the basis of being able to provide an early delivery for the scheme. They include Blackpool Council, Bristol City Council, and Luton Borough Council and Sheffield City Council.

The partnerships are part of the government’s £1.2Bn Starter Homes Land Fund, established to support the development of starter homes on sites across England.

The fund helps by allowing suitable land to be prepared for starter home schemes, which can be built on by developers or through accelerated construction by 2020.

The first places will start construction later this year along with sites supported by the Homes and Communities Agency.

Housing Minister Gavin Barwell said: “This government is committed to building Starter Homes to help young first time buyers get on the housing ladder.

“This first wave of partnerships shows the strong local interest to build thousands of Starter Homes on hundreds of brownfield sites in the coming years. One in three councils has expressed an interest to work with us so far.”

The government’s ability to deliver these projects on the proposed timescale has been questioned. Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, John Healey commented: “These so-called ‘starter homes’ are a symbol of the Conservative record on housing.

“Ministers launched them in 2014 but will only start to build the first in 2017, promised they’d be affordable for young people when they’ll cost up to £450,000, and pledged to build 200,000 by 2020, but no one now believes that’s possible.”

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