EXCLUSIVE: Andy Burnham will announce plans to help people to buy their first home with a deposit of just 2.5% in his keynote speech to Labour Party conference
First-time buyers without access to the “bank of Mum and Dad” will get help to get on the housing ladder in a Help to Buy-style scheme.
Andy Burnham will announce plans to help people to buy their first home with a deposit of just 2.5% in his big speech to Labour Party conference next week. The “Your First Home” scheme is designed to help young people who would struggle to afford a deposit to get on the housing ladder.
The Prime Minister told the Sunday Mirror: “We are coming back at this whole question of helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder, particularly those who can’t call on the famous bank of mum and dad. So we’re looking at what was the Help to Buy scheme, which obviously had an impact, but was it as focused as it should have been?
“We coming back with a proposal that we think will really help those young people who might struggle otherwise or not be able to get on the housing ladder otherwise. Of course, the housing world is really desperate for a scheme of this type to stimulate building. So I’m pretty proud of the scheme that we’ve brought forward.”
He went on: “You know, we are going to build a new generation of council housing, and we’re taking big steps there. But also at the same time, it’s about people owning their own home, and I absolutely recognize that ambition as well.
“So we’re proud of the scheme that we’re putting forward. It’s quite a significant intervention in the market, and I think it will particularly help some of those young people in their 20s.
“Perhaps a couple who are just starting out, maybe they’ve got two student loans going on. I absolutely think we’ve got an obligation to help them a bit more, particularly when they don’t have a network of family who can help them with the deposit.”
Developers would pay a fee to allow first time buyers to purchase new build homes helped by a 20% government backed equity loan, with an initial interest-free period to ensure housing costs are affordable.
There will be a cap on household income and the size of the deposit to target the scheme at less well off buyers. Registration for the scheme will open at the end of the year.
It comes after a Government audit found that George Osborne’s Help to Buy scheme in 2013 delivered value for money, rebutting criticism that it pushed up house prices and cost too much.
Osborne’s scheme allowed buyers to purchase a new-build home worth up to £600,000 with a 5% deposit, backed by a government loan of up to 20% (or up to 40% in London).
The report, commissioned under Keir Starmer’s government, found more than 387,000 people bought their own home through the scheme, more than 328,000 of whom were first-time buyers. It reportedly delivered £25bn in social value to the UK in its final year.
However officials believe it was not properly targeted and asked too little from developers. The full details of the scheme, which will be funded by reprioritising cash from existing budgets, is expected to be set out in next month’s Budget.
Separately, councils will be given strengthened powers to seize empty and derelict homes to meet untapped housing need.
The Government will overhaul Tory changes to Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) which allow councils to take over the management of long-term empty homes and bring them back into occupation for an initial period of 12 months, rising to 8 years.
No applications have been made since 2021.
Under new plans, which will be tabled in Parliament within weeks, the amount of time a property must sit empty will be reduced from two years to six months. Red tape will be ripped up to make it easier for local authorities to get the go ahead.
Some 303,185 dwellings in England were classed as “long-term” empty (more than six months) in 2025, according to official figures.
Meanwhile, the number of homeless children in England living in temporary accommodation has hit 177,530, because of long-term shortages in housing supply.