The government will invest a further £10 billion in the Help to Buy Equity Loan, due to the popularity of the scheme across the country.

More than 130,000 completions have already taken place by people using the equity loan, which helps people buy a new build home with only a 5% deposit.

The new funding means that the Help to Buy Equity Loan could help around 135,000 more people to buy homes by 2021. This would bring the total number of households across England that would be supported through the scheme since it began in 2013 to around 360,000.

Some 81% of home purchases using the equity loan scheme have been made by first-time buyers, helping the total number of first-time buyers to increase by 70% between 2010 and 2016.

The new funding expands the government’s commitment to help people make their dream of owning a home a reality. The Chancellor has been clear that support for buyers must be matched with support for building so that, over the longer term, housing becomes more affordable. This means land must be made available in the right places to build the homes we need. The government will therefore consult at Budget on an ambitious package of planning reforms, building on the Housing White Paper.

These commitments build on the package of further measures announced by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Further Information

The Equity Loan scheme launched in April 2013 and funding has been committed until 2021. It works by the government providing an equity loan of up to 20% which is repaid when the home is sold, or after 25 years, whichever comes first.

Potential homeowners using the programme are subject to the normal affordability assessments undertaken by mortgage lenders. No interest or repayments are due during the first 5 years of the loan.

The Help to Buy: Equity Loan can be used to purchase a new build property up to the value of £600,000, with a maximum equity loan of £120,000 (20%). In London, applicants are able to claim an equity loan up to 40% of the purchase price.

The housing announcements follows the most recent Help to Buy statistics which showed that over 320,000 completions have taken place using one or more of the Help to Buy schemes, including over 275,000 first-time buyer households. Over 1 million Help to Buy: ISAs have now been opened by first-time buyers, offering government bonuses of up to £3,000 towards the cost of a first home.

Since 2010, the government has delivered over 300,000 affordable homes, and more than double the amount of council housing has been built in the seven years since 2010 than in the 13 years before it.

The Government today backed transport improvements across the Northern Powerhouse with £400 million of extra funding.

More than £100m will go towards local road schemes to bust congestion pinch-points and speed up journeys, while an extra £300m will help push forward plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail to bolster links between Northern towns and cities with more frequent and faster services.

Ministers are already investing record amounts to strengthen transport links in the North. This local road funding, from the £23 billion National Productivity and Investment Fund (NPIF), will go towards 13 priority schemes in the North West, 10 in Yorkshire and the Humber and 10 across the North East. These have been proposed by local leaders who know their areas best and illustrated how this investment will be of the greatest benefit to local people to improve journeys and help support jobs.

The extra £300 million will go towards ensuring HS2 infrastructure can accommodate future Northern Powerhouse Rail and Midlands Connect services. Future-proofing will make it easier and less disruptive to build Northern Powerhouse Rail in the future. This will enable faster services between the Northern cities of Liverpool and Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and York, as well as on towards the East Midlands and London. It will also enable services between Liverpool and Leeds to pass via Manchester Piccadilly station.

Further Information

The Government has already backed the North with record investment in transport. By 2020 it will have spent more than £13 billion on improving and modernising transport links across the Northern Powerhouse. It has also spent more than £3.3 billion for local investment priorities through the Local Growth Fund.

In addition, Ministers have agreed historic devolution deals with four areas across the North (Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Tees Valley, and Sheffield City Region). This May, the people of Greater Manchester, Tees Valley and Liverpool City Region elected powerful mayors for the first time who will receive a combined £2.25 billion of additional government funding for local priorities.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

I am horrified by the awful attack at a music festival in Las Vegas this morning. The United Kingdom stands with the American people against this indiscriminate violence. My thoughts are with all those caught up in it.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is in contact with Las Vegas authorities to establish whether any British people were caught up in the attack and we are ready to help however we can. Any British people in Las Vegas should follow the instructions of local authorities.

Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said:

Bombardier jobs are absolutely vital to the Northern Ireland economy. Today’s visit to meet Bombardier NI CEO Michael Ryan provides assurance on the UK Government’s continuing commitment and efforts to protect jobs and the livelihoods of so many people across Northern Ireland and discuss how we can continue to work together to resolve this very serious issue.

There is a compelling requirement for all in politics, in business and across the community to stand as one on this issue.

The UK Government’s commitment has been clear from the outset, with the Prime Minister, Business Secretary and other Cabinet colleagues working tirelessly to bring this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.

I want to echo comments by Defence Secretary Rt Hon Sir Michael Fallon MP that this is an unjustified action by Boeing and whatever course of action they take could have an impact on any future dealings they may have with the UK Government.

The Government is committed to building a stronger economy across the UK, including Northern Ireland. But it is clear economic success, securing existing jobs and creating new ones, attracting local and foreign direct investment is largely dependent on sustainable and stable Government.

We will continue to work with the senior management at Bombardier, the trade unions and the workforce as well as with the Canadian and US Governments to find a resolution. I hope this fight can be boosted by getting Stormont back up and running. I remain hopeful a political deal can be done and I again call on the parties to resolve differences and work together for everyone in Northern Ireland.

The following companies entered into administration on 02 October 2017. The following people from KPMG have been appointed.

The Insolvency Service has made special arrangements for employees who have been dismissed following the Monarch Group entering administration.

If you’ve been dismissed

If you’ve been dismissed, you might be entitled to redundancy and other related payments from the Insolvency Service.

Who is eligible

Individuals who worked for any of the above listed companies under an employment contract are eligible to apply for redundancy and other payments. They cannot apply until after they have been dismissed.

Workers and self-employed contractors who provided services to the above companies are not eligible to apply. Instead, these individuals should contact the administrator to register as creditors see – http://www.kpmg.co.uk/monarch.

How to apply

The administrator will give details about how to apply and will also give you a case reference number (eg CN12345678). Once you have this information you can apply online.

Paying your claim

On average it takes 14 days to process and pay claims. However, sometimes we need to get additional information from the individual or from the administrator, which can take a bit of time. We’ll contact you directly if we need anything further from you. We always try to pay eligible claims within 6 weeks of receiving the application.

To allow us to deal with everyone’s application as quickly as possible, please do not contact us to check the status of your application until after the 6 weeks have passed.

Getting help

If you need help completing your application, you can contact the Redundancy Payments helpline on 0330 331 0020.

When calling, please have your case reference number (eg CN12345678) and National Insurance number to hand. If you do not have a case reference number, please contact the administrator.

We are experiencing higher than usual call volumes at the moment. If you are unable to get through to us you can email redundancypaymentsonline@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk with “xxxx Employee” in the subject line, and we will call you back.

Please include your name, your case reference number and your telephone number in your email.

If you need to email us after submitting your claim, please only use the email address you gave on your application form. Otherwise, we won’t be able to respond to you for security reasons.