Shadow Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook says Labour's 'freedom to buy' scheme will get more young people on the housing ladder. Report by Alibhaiz. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 We're not just rebranding it, we're changing what the scheme will do.
00:03 So the government do have a scheme, but it's limited, it's not permanent, and as a result
00:07 it's never become an established feature of the market.
00:10 It's responsible for about 1% of purchases.
00:13 So we want to change this and we want to make it more comprehensive, permanent, and therefore
00:17 an established feature of the market.
00:18 And we think doing that will allow around 80,000 new first-time buyers onto the housing ladder.
00:25 Well, lots of the people we're talking about are stuck in privately rented housing, able
00:30 to afford mortgage repayments.
00:32 What they struggle with is the large deposit required to get on.
00:35 Now, there's an emerging difference, if you like, between those who can rely on the bank
00:38 of mum and dad, funds from families for that deposit, and those who can't.
00:42 But it's becoming a serious barrier to many.
00:44 So we're talking about people who can afford the repayment, need help with that deposit,
00:47 we think this Freedom to Buy scheme will enable them to do that.
00:50 We can get more people on the ladder because the dream of homeownership has become a vanishing
00:55 pipe dream for far too many young people under the Conservatives.