Londoners should be given the chance to buy a new type of state-built, price-capped home that could only ever be sold to a first-time buyer, according to David Lammy, a Labour mayoral candidate.
Announcing new details of his plans to address the housing crisis in the capital on Monday, Lammy said his plan would create a new type of tenure in the UK housing market and see the state showing “hands-on leadership” in housing.
Lammy, one of the six contenders hoping to be named as Labour’s candidate for mayor in the 2016 election, said he wanted to build 30,000 of what he described as new “first-time homes” with the intention they would provide affordable housing for Londoners for generations to come.
The homes, which he said could be available for as little as £150,000, would be built on public land and sold with conditions on the leasehold intended to stop the price rising in line with normal London house price inflation.
The buyers would be able to sell for up to 10% above cost price, but only if they had lived in the home for a long time. For those trying to sell after a shorter period, the cap on the amount by which the price could rise above cost would be “significantly lower than 10%”.
And the leasehold conditions would prevent the home being sold to someone who already owned a home, with the intention of keeping the stock available for first-time buyers.
Lammy said he would sell the first homes at cost-price, using money from a £10bn London housing bonds issue to pay for them. He has already announced that the bonds would also fund 30,000 new social homes.
Citing Shelter research, Lammy said the Conservatives’ starter home programme was “a con”, because the homes would only be affordable to someone on the living wage in 2% of English local authorities, and that his plan was far superior.
“We cannot let the Tories have a political monopoly on talking about home ownership – Labour needs a plan to make buying a home affordable for young people, and that’s what I’m outlining,” he said.
“The state needs to play a much greater role, and under my plans that’s what will happen: raising the money, building the homes and regulating to make sure they remain genuinely affordable. It’s a new era of hands-on leadership on housing and it’s what London needs.”
