Jennifer's leading role in lobbying Westminster
1/24/2012
South West MPs and housing experts from across the region are meeting for Tea at Westminster on Wednesday 25 January.
South West MPs and housing experts from across the region are meeting for Tea at Westminster on Wednesday 25 January.
The aim of the event is to raise the profile of affordable home ownership options such as shared ownership, and ensure the region’s politicians are aware of its role as part of the solution to the current housing crisis.
Magna's business development manager, Jennifer Gould, who is chairman of the National Housing Federation’s South West Home Ownership Group said: ‘We want to make sure that shared ownership gets the publicity it needs. It’s crucial to affordable housing and a healthy housing market.
‘By providing affordable home ownership schemes, housing associations are helping thousands of households to have of a home of their own and get their foot on the housing ladder.’
Over the last 10 years house prices have risen three times faster than incomes in the South West region and now stand at almost 12 times local incomes. With reduced mortgage availability and the need for huge deposits, more and more average and lower income earners are being priced out of the market.
Government projections suggest the number of households in the South West will increase by 30% by 2033, and National Housing Federation research predicts home ownership levels in the region will slump to just 65.9% over the next decade – the lowest level since the early 1980s.
During the event, hosted by St Austell and Newquay MP Stephen Gilbert, MPs will hear how shared ownership is a tried, tested and successful approach to delivering affordable housing. Through it South West housing associations are helping thousands of households turn their dreams of home ownership into a reality, and for many first time buyers it’s the only way to get onto the housing ladder.
There are currently over 6,000 people in the South West actively seeking to buy an affordable shared ownership home, but the supply of shared ownership properties just can’t keep up.
The Federation has recently called for government to invest £1bn nationally in building shared ownership over the next three years, resulting in:
* 66,000 shared ownership homes
* 99,000 jobs created directly in construction
* 396,000 jobs created within the wider supply chain
* £15.25bn generated within the wider economy
* £342m pumped into local economies through the purchase of furnishings and local services such as surveying
The afternoon tea at Westminster is sponsored by HomeBuy agent South West Homes, and has been organised by the National Housing Federation’s South West Home Ownership Group. The event takes the theme of ‘supporting aspiration in an age of austerity’. Ten of the region’s MPs are due to attend:
* Mid Dorset and North Poole MP Annette Brooke
* South Swindon MP Robert Buckland
* Bath MP Don Foster
* North Somerset MP the Right Honourable Dr Liam Fox
* North Wiltshire MP James Gray
* North East Somerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg
* Wells MP Tessa Munt
* South East Cornwall MP Sheryll Murray
* North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson
* Torbay MP Adrian Sanders
Alongside broad representation from South West housing associations, other delegates attending include key staff from the Homes and Communities Agency, HomeBuy agent South West Homes and independent mortgage brokers The Mortgage Place.
South West Lead Manager for the National Housing Federation, Jenny Allen said: ‘We’re delighted to see so many of the South West’s MPs attending today to find out more about shared ownership – it’ll give us a vital opportunity to press this important issue.
‘We welcome the government’s recognition in the housing strategy of the huge economic and social value that housing investment brings. However, the government needs to be bolder, going further to fix the broken housing market and taking decisive actions to radically increase housing supply.
‘There is clearly huge demand for affordable home ownership schemes in the South West and we believe that greater government investment in shared ownership would not only represent an enormous boost to first-time buyers who are able to sustain home ownership but unable to raise a deposit, but would also help support and sustain a faster economic recovery.’