CHC respond to Chancellor’s Budget

The Chancellor George Osborne gave his sixth budget speech in the House of Commons today.

Key headlines include:

• Help to Buy ISA: For every £200 saved by first time buyers, the UK government will top it up by 25% or £50 (Up to a maximum of £3,000).
• Funding: An additional £18m for Wales for 2015-16 as a result of the Barnett Consequential.
• Negotiations will open with Welsh Government on a City Deal for Cardiff and on the £1bn tidal lagoon project for Swansea Bay.
• Personal tax: Threshold to rise to £10,660 next month, £10,800 next year and £11,000 the following year. This will mean 1.2 million people in Wales will see a real term gain of £561 by 2017-18.

Commenting on the Budget, Stuart Ropke, Group Chief Executive of CHC said:
“On the one hand we welcome the Help to Buy ISA, any assistance which helps first time buyers get a foot on the property ladder is to be welcomed. On the other hand home ownership is out of reach for so many people and this announcement fails to address the root cause of unaffordability - the fact that there are simply not enough homes being built to meet demand. There is also the risk that government subsidy for first time buyers, simply feeds through to higher prices.

We will also be calling on Welsh Government to invest the £18m consequential in affordable housing to help towards the delivery of the 10,000 affordable homes target for this term of government.”