The Chancellor’s combined Autumn Statement and Spending Review included a range of measures intended to enable more people to own their own homes. Presented as a ‘Five Point Plan for housing’ worth over £20bn, the main announcements included the following:

1. Measures to build 400,000 affordable houses by 2020/21, including 200,000 Starter Homes which will be sold at a 20% discount compared to market value to young first time buyers, and 135,000 Help to Buy: Shared Ownership homes. Existing constraints that prevent private sector organisations participating in the delivery of such programmes will be removed
2. Extending the Right to Buy scheme to Housing Association tenants, with an initial pilot scheme involving five Housing Associations
3. Measures to accelerate housing supply, including reforms to the current planning system to encourage house building and helping to release more public sector land and brownfield sites
4. Extending the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme to 2021 and creating a special London Help to Buy scheme which offers a 40% equity loan
5. Using some of the revenue from increased SDLT rates on purchases of additional residential properties to provide £60m for communities in England most affected by the impact of second homes, doubling their affordable housing budget to help first time buyers.