At Thursday 21st of July’s Full Council Meeting the Labour Group will be moving a motion calling on your Council to take measures to help rejuvenate the local housing market, by addressing the central reason for the slowdown of the local housing market, the high number of young adults who cannot afford the 25-30% deposits required for mortgages by banks and building societies.
The scheme would work like this “ a couple may need a full mortgage on a home worth £100,000, but a bank may demand a large sum like £25,000 for a deposit.
To help the couple out, the council would talk to them to make sure they are a good risk, and then agree to guarantee their mortgage deposit.
This would mean the couple do not need to come up with £25,000 themselves, but if the couple default on their mortgage payments then the council would step in and stump up the £25,000 to the bank instead.
Although some might worry that this policy would leave the Council at great risk should there be another credit crunch, we are not proposing for this scheme to be available to everyone and those people who apply for the scheme would be vigorously checked to ensure their reliability.
Indeed, the scheme’s criteria might include:
In actual fact, this type of policy has a proven track record of working in this town, with a previous Labour administration offering 100% fixed term mortgages to potential mortgage borrowers to enable Covingham development to be built.
This type of policy is just the first in a long line of Swindon Labour Party policies that will be publicised over the next year which will provide value for money for local Council-taxpayers’ but with a social purpose, the two key tenets of a future local Labour administration.
Councillor Jim Grant
Leader of the Labour Group