The chancellor has announced new measures for buying and building homes in his 2018 Budget.

Philip Hammond delivered what he described as a “budget that paves the way for a brighter future” this afternoon (29 October) ahead of Brexit, and declared that “the era of austerity is finally coming to an end”.

During the announcement he committed a further £500 million to the Housing Infrastructure Fund, bringing the total to £5.5 billion, to support the building of up to 650,000 new homes.

Plus the Housing Revenue Account cap that controls local authority house building will be abolished from today in England – a move the Treasury says will enable councils to increase housebuilding to around 10,000 homes per year.

For home buyers, the chancellor has confirmed that Stamp Duty Land Tax relief for first-time buyers will be extended to purchases of all qualifying Shared Ownership properties.

Meanwhile a new Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme will run for two years from April 2021 for first-time buyers. It’ll help those purchasing houses with a market value up to new regional property price caps set at 1.5 times the current forecast regional average first-time buyer price.

Here in the North West, the cap for the scheme which will end in March 2023 is £224,400.

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