In March 2015, when Brexit was but a glint in Farage’s eye and Cameron still had a job, the Conservatives made a big play of their promise to deliver 200,000 homes to first-time buyers if the Tories won the election.

Staying true to their word, this policy was at the heart of Conservative housing strategy following the 2015 election with David Cameron repeatedly stating his determination to create affordable home ownership to “help anyone who aspires to own their own home achieve their dream”.

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 officially introduced starter homes in legislation as a new affordable housing product. Section 2 of the Act specifies that starter homes are:

- New dwellings;

- Available for purchase by ‘qualifying first-time buyers’ only; these are defined as people who don’t already own a home and who are aged 23-40;

- To be sold at a discount of at least 20% of their market value, and always for less than the price cap (currently set to £450,000 in Greater London; £250,000 outside London).

Controversially, the 2016 Act inserted a new definition of Affordable Housing into the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, defining it as being for people whose needs are not adequately served by the commercial housing market and including Starter Homes (as defined by the Act).

This has led to widespread criticism of the initiative with research undertaken by Savills for the Local Government Association (LGA) suggesting that starter homes will be out of reach for people classified as needing affordable housing — being those who would have to spend more than 30 per cent of their income to rent or buy a home — in 67 per cent of local council areas.

Of particular concern is the fact that starter homes will count as “affordable housing” despite the fact that a £450,000 home costs 17 times the average British salary. According to the LGA this could mean that starter homes will in effect prevent the construction of between 56,000 and 71,000 social and affordable homes (under current definitions) that would otherwise have been built in England.

New Prime Minister, New Focus?

Following the summer recess Housing Minister Gavin Barwell has indicated a shift from Cameron’s pet project, indicating that the promotion of affordable home ownership (read Starter Homes) is no longer at the heart of Government housing policy.

During the 2016 Resi conference Gavin Barwell MP noted that:

“There is a little bit of tension between the overall supply objective and measures specifically to help people on to the housing ladder. The way you make housing in this country more affordable to rent and buy is you build more homes. There is still a role for the Government doing specific things to help people on to the first rung but this can’t be at the exclusion of all else. We need to build more homes of every single type and not focus on one single tenure.”

In the context of Gavin Barwell’s speech, and being mindful of continued delays to the announcement of a national starter homes minimum requirement, does this indicate a step change in approach following the departure of Mr Cameron? It remains to be seen how the initiative will be approached in forthcoming Secondary Legislation however, there are indications that the promotion of Starter Homes may well be softened to just one of many Government housing initiatives.