The Chancellor Philip Hammond read out the Autumn Budget in the House of Commons yesterday. As a part of this budget, the Government have announced a new package of financial support for housing worth £15.3 billion over the course of the next five years. This investment is expected to support the creation of housing, and will increase the overall investment into this area to at least £44 billion for the period.
During the budget speech, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has said that the government was dedicated to fixing the dysfunctional British housing market which will the restore the dream of homeownership for a new generation. Following on, the Chancellor stated that the only way to make housing more affordable in the long term, and the only solution that was sustainable was to build more homes in the right places. Philip Hammond said that action already taken by the Government has helped to increase housing supply in the period from 2016 to 2017 by 217,000.
The new measures have the potential to help more people to get onto the housing ladder, or move up it. There has also been investment announced to improve infrastructure with a Transforming Cities Fund of around £1.7 billion. This money will go towards the improvement of local transport connections. More specifically, improvements to the Tyne & Wear metro in the north east of England has been named as an area for improvement as has the road and rail connections in the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor.
There has also been an announcement that stamp duty will be abolished for first time buyers, for properties up to £300,000. This announcement could reduce the additional costs to first time buyers across the country, making it slightly more of a possibility that they will be able to get into the housing market.
