Boris unveils first stage of £100m home scheme for working Londoners

Published by Brian Church for 24dash.com in Housing

Boris Johnson has unveiled the first phase of a £100m housing boost for working Londoners.

The mayor says 27 organisations will share a total of £78m to build 3,000 new homes across London, supporting around 6,000 jobs in construction. The homes will offer flexible ownership options, including low-interest equity loans, 'rent-to-save' and 'part-buy-part-rent.'

Several housing associations successfully made the list of 27 including A2Dominion (£2.45 million, 70 homes), Affinity Sutton (£1.66m, 64), Amicus Horizon (£1.09m, 42), Asra (£800,000, 40), Catalyst (£3.72m, 161), East Thames (£3.68m, 134), L&Q (£540,000, 18), Network (£8.25m, 240), Notting Hill (£11.3 m, 356) and Octavia (£503,000, 21).

A further round of allocations for the remaining funds will be confirmed next month.

The fund forms part of the Mayor’s Housing Covenant, which sets out how he will stimulate housing supply and make the market work better for struggling Londoners on low and middle incomes.

Johnson said: "Boosting construction and improving the housing options of hard-working Londoners is critical to this city’s economic success. There has been a fantastic level of interest in this new fund, which will help an additional 10,000 people make their way onto the property ladder on top of those already being helped through other programmes.”

The mayor’s press office said the new homes will be delivered through FirstBuy and a flexible housing product designed to help working Londoners on moderate and lower incomes purchase properties in ways that best suit them - either ‘rent-to-save’, shared ownership or equity loans.

A total of 1,701 homes will be funded through the FirstBuy initiative, allowing working Londoners to purchase new build homes with a 5 percent deposit and a loan from the GLA and developer of the homes. Also, 1,325 homes will be funded through the flexible product which will help working Londoners on moderate or low incomes purchase their own home through a financial product suited to their individual circumstances through either rent-to-save, shared ownership or equity loan.

Bids were received to the value of £209m from 42 different organisations.