The government’s ‘starter homes’ initiative could help to make more housing schemes viable for medium sized developers to deliver, according to one Merseyside-based firm.

Forth Homes says it is confident the plans to build 200,000 new properties available at 20% discount to young first-time buyers will “offer some promising opportunities” for the company as well as other similar scale developers as it looks to continue increasing housing supply.

Speaking in the current issue of Your Move about how housebuilders are meeting needs, the developer suggests small to medium housebuilders would benefit from having opportunities to build on land made available by local authorities which is often opened up to larger volume builders.

A spokesperson for Forth Homes says: “Affordable housing requirements stipulated by some councils on low market value sites are hindering developers supplying more units to the market as it can destroy the viability of many schemes, and have a negative impact on the regeneration of local areas.

“We believe that the government recognises that this is a problem and as such there is talk about helping developers build more units by introducing starter homes.  We look forward to hearing more about this and are confident it will offer some promising opportunities for us and other medium sized house builders in the future.’’

Chancellor George Osborne revealed the government’s plans to spend £2.3 billion on starter homes over the next five years during last November’s Autumn Statement and Spending Review.

For more insight on how housebuilders are providing homes across Merseyside and what further progress can be made, read the Hot Topic in our latest issue of Your Move.

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