Flagship first-time buyers scheme now open for bids from house builders
- House builders invited to bid for share of £150 million to support roll-out of First Homes scheme helping local people onto the housing ladder.
- Today’s package will deliver 1,500 new First Homes by March 2023
Home builders across England can today (11 August 2021) bid for their share of a £150 million package by offering plots for sale as First Homes, the flagship government scheme aimed at first-time buyers and key workers.
House builders are being invited to work with the government to deliver First Homes across the country in the coming months, with the aim of delivering 1,500 homes by March 2023.
First Homes helps local first-time buyers and key workers onto the property ladder by offering homes at a discount of at least 30% compared to the market price. The same percentage will then be passed on with the sale of the property to future first-time buyers. This means homes will always be sold below market value – benefitting local communities and families for generations to come.
The contract award will give housebuilders the opportunity to engage with local councils and mortgage providers, understand the expected level of customer demand and to learn more about the delivery process ahead of the full roll out through planning.
Today’s package follows the initial introduction of First Homes earlier this summer, where local sites were opened up in Bolsover, East Midlands, developed by Keepmoat Homes, and Cannock, West Midlands, developed by Vistry Partnerships.
Leeds Building Society recently received the first mortgage application for a First Homes property as more homes come onto the market.
Housing Secretary RT Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:
It is great to see the First Homes scheme gaining momentum and I am happy to invite house builders to deliver this flagship house building programme across the country.
Lenders have already seen the first mortgage applications come in as more homes come onto the market. It will support local communities and give local people a greater chance of getting on the housing ladder and having a place which they can call their own.
Just as importantly, homebuilders of all shapes and sizes will now be able to benefit from this scheme while helping first-time buyers and key workers onto the property ladder.
Peter Freeman, Chair of Homes England said:
The Early Delivery Programme is a great opportunity for housebuilders, housing associations and the wider development sector to get to grips with First Homes. We look forward to working with partners to help aspiring homeowners realise their ambitions and own their own home.
Councils will also be able to prioritise the homes for keyworkers such as nurses and teachers who have been looking to get on the housing ladder while supporting their community throughout the pandemic.
More information for house builders on the invitation to tender (ITT) is available on Procontract.
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ESFA Update: 11 August 2021
Police awarded £11.3m for programmes to prevent domestic abuse crimes
• Funding will also extend the number of people who can attend the Healthy Relationships Programme run by probation services.
• It will further help the development of a multi-agency Stalking Intervention Project with a police officer, specialist IDVA and Consultant Forensic Psychologist.
• A school-based awareness programme will also raise issues around healthy and unhealthy relationships.
• Using a ‘Team around the Couple’ trauma-informed, holistic and systems-based approach, the proposed model will build on and scale up the successful work of the area’s Multi-Agency Tasking and Co-ordination process.
• The programme will work alongside the existing work of the Turning the Spotlight project which will sit within a suite of interventions to address the needs of perpetrators posing all levels of risk across Cumbria.
• They will also train front line practitioners to identify behaviours and implement strategies to intervene.
• They will further look to support families where children or young people aged between 8 and 18 are abusive or violent towards the people close to them, particularly their parents or carers.
• Expanding the Inspiring Families programme, which takes a holistic approach to addressing a family’s individual needs.
• Region-wide delivery of Respect’s Working with Perpetrators programme.
• Run a targeted media campaign to tackle escalation of harmful behaviour.
• Facilitate the provision of adult-focused domestic abuse perpetrator interventions across the area.
• This includes adapting the Caring Dads programme, Great Behaviour Breakdown pilot, enhancing one to one support for existing adult interventions and Yellow Door Systemic Family Therapy.
• Delivery of For Baby’s Sake, a holistic, whole family domestic abuse programme starting during pregnancy.
• The delivery model will facilitate a whole-system approach to ensure whole family’s needs are met.
• Perpetrator support work in schools including Healthy Relationships education, delivered by professionals as part of the sex education requirement of schools.
• Piloting a daily helpline/live-chat function from 3-8pm for follow-up advice and guidance.
• Multi-faceted support for perpetrators from BAME communities and partnering with the organisation RISE to deliver a number of programmes as part of an intersectional approach that takes account of victim and perpetrator identities.
• Investment within social care teams to equip the partnership to improve engagement with perpetrators at an earlier point in order to maximise the behaviour change opportunities and reduce harm.
• A three-part programme focusing on non-convicted male perpetrators of DA to address substance misuse, mental health and unemployment.
• Provision of Merseyside’s first programme for abuse of parents by children and young people (police reports for which have significantly increased), using the Respect Young People’s Programme.
• Interventions using the Stalking Risk Profile to address intimate partner stalkers, with Paladin-trained ISACs providing support to those stalkers’ (female) victims.
i. reduce re-offending of domestic abuse perpetrators
ii. safeguard adults and children at risk of domestic abuse
iii. break the cycle of abuse of the perpetrator.
• The programme will also assist in providing alternative outcomes for offenders and improve victim support.
• The programme will complement the force’s existing stalking advocacy service and provide an option for local magistrates issuing stalking protection orders.
• Ongoing risk management of and specialist support for victims, including 1:1 therapeutic counselling, weekly group therapy sessions, and the support of an IDVA or DA Outreach Service.
• Funding will also support programmes for younger perpetrators aged 16+.
• Support for Caring Dads Kirklees, a parenting programme for men who have exposed their children to domestic abuse.
• Support for Restore Families, a digitally delivered programme for adolescent perpetrators and Recognise Reflect Change, a programme for medium risk perpetrators.