Affordable schemes 'should be simplified'

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said that the government should simplify its approach to helping Britons get onto the property ladder.

In response to a government consultation on housing which closed yesterday October (15th), the CML has said that while schemes such as open market homebuy were in theory good ideas but in practice ineffectual.

The council added that rules over homeowners' eligibility for financial support should also be altered in order to provide a fairer deal for those in the owner-occupied sector.

"The pilot open market homebuy scheme launched around a year ago, which the CML saw as worth testing in the market, has in practice proved over-complicated and overall take-up has been poor," advised CML head of policy Jackie Bennett.

"We would now prefer to see the government's efforts being put into publicly funded shared equity schemes linked to new housing supply, which is crucial," Ms Bennett added.

Moneysupermarket.com reported last week that the proportion of first-time buyers in the UK housing market has fallen by a fifth over the past six months.

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