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The Solution to the First-time Buyer Crisis
The huge financial hurdle facing first-time home buyers has been with us for decades, and just keeps getting worse and worse. Everybody knows this by now. But so far, a solution has eluded us. This article will argue that we now, at last, have the basic regulations in place to create a solution. An issue…
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The First Homes Scheme
The First Homes Scheme provides homes to first-time buyers at a substantial discount to market price. The minimum discount is 30%. This scheme is now the Government’s preferred home ownership option within Affordable Housing. The Government’s stated intention is that it should account for at least 25% of the Affordable Housing units being built. This…
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Exception Sites
There is an excellent introduction to Exception Sites in this article in “Planning Insight” of April 2021: https://www.planninginsight.co.uk/blogs/first-homes-and-exception-sites/. The concept of an Exception Site derives from paragraph 71 of the National Planning Policy Framework https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework–2. Rural Exception Sites are well covered in this article. https://www.communityledhomes.org.uk/planning/44 There are currently three types of Exception Site: Rural, Entry-level,…
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The East Cambridgeshire Experience
East Cambridgeshire has led the way in the provision of heavily discounted homes for first-time buyers. Specific local conditions have been a big part of what has driven this. Cambridge City has become a fast-growing high-tech hub. The city itself is becoming increasingly unaffordable, even for well-paid high-tech professionals. As a result, they are moving…