Rishi Sunak plans to win over young voters with new ‘help to buy’ fund

Rishi Sunak is hoping to win over a new generation of voters with plans to help young people get on the housing ladder.

The Prime Minister is considering new “help to buy” funding to make it easier for first time buyers to make the leap from renting to ownership.

Downing Street and Treasury officials are said to be looking at proposals as high prices and rising interest rates continue to lock out thousands of younger people from the property market.

“We cannot go into the next election without an offer for first-time buyers,” a minister told The Times. 

“We all know that homeowners are more likely to vote Conservative and we cannot cede this ground to Labour.”

Discussions were held before the spring budget but put on hold amid fears new measures would fuel inflation.

But a new-buyers’ support scheme is now “back on the table” and is likely to be part of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement if the economic conditions are right.

Housebuilding fell at the fastest rate since the start of the pandemic in March after rising borrowing costs hit development projects.

Ex-Chancellor George Osborne launched the original Help to Buy scheme in 2013 to assist people who earned enough to own a property but were struggling to meet sky-high deposit demands.

By the time it closed last year, more than 375,00 properties had been bought using the support, which allowed deposits of just five percent, with 84 percent of those going to first time buyers.

But critics say the system will not help tackle the country’s housing pressures as more properties must be built to meet demand.

Lisa Nandy, the shadow housing secretary, said: “Rishi Sunak abandoned a whole generation of young people aspiring to own their own home. It isn’t right that hardworking young people are being priced out of their areas, squeezed by rents, and having their ambition to buy a house taken from them.”

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