Green Party housing spokesperson Tom Chance has dismissed the government’s starter homes initiative as a subsidy for wealthy professionals, after housing charity Shelter found the homes will be unaffordable for families on average incomes in almost 60 per cent of local authorities in England.
Chance said:
"Shelter's research shows that these starter homes are a subsidy for well-off professionals, at the expense of social housing for people who really need the help. Even in places where they are affordable to the first buyers, they'll quickly become unaffordable when sold on.
"If the government really wants to make home ownership affordable it needs a comprehensive rethink to stabilise house prices. They need to look at introducing a land value tax, abolishing buy-to-let tax breaks and giving the Bank of England a stronger duty to have regard to stable house prices."