Boris Johnson promises more help for first-time buyers and renters in major mortgage market review

BORIS Johnson has promised more help for first-time buyers and renters in a major mortgage review.

The Prime Minister wants to make it easier to get on the housing ladder as he took aim at a "constantly moving target" in the market.

And he said the Government will work with lenders to recognise renters with a track record of paying bills on time.

A review, set to report back in Autumn, will also look at giving better access to low-deposit mortgages and ways to improve the market.

Mr Johnson said: "The challenge facing first-time buyers today is greater than anything we have seen before.

"We have a ludicrous situation whereby plenty of younger people could afford to make monthly payments.

"They're earning enough to cover astronomical rent bills, but the ever-spiralling price of a house or flat has so inflated deposit requirements that saving even just ten per cent is wholly unrealistic for them."

He also wants to make it easier to turn disused agricultural buildings into new homes for local first-time buyers.

The Prime Minister had pledged to turn Generation Rent into Generation Buy in 2020.

House prices have soared in the past two decades. A home costs on an average nine times your income today, compared with just four-and-a-half times in 2002.

And a quarter of current renters think they will be in their fifties before they buy a house, a report found yesterday.

Mr Johnson today also announced a right-to-buy scheme to let housing benefit payments be used for mortgages for the first time.

Right-to-buy schemes first pioneered by Maggie Thatcher will be expanded so housing association tenants can purchase their homes.

And mortgage deposits could be reduced across the board to put home ownership dreams more within reach.

The PM outlined his battleplan to fix the housing crisis that makes it near impossible for lower-earning renters to own their own home.

It is also a clear nod to Tory rebels the government is "getting on with the job" following Monday's bruising confidence vote.

Ambitious plans to echo Conservative heroine Margaret Thatcher's housing revolution will also help woo wavering backbenchers.

And promising the nation will weather the cost of living storm, he promised: "We'll get through it, just as we got through the far greater challenge of Covid."