CML welcomes government support for home ownership

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has welcomed the government's support for home ownership.
The Prime Minister recently revealed home ownership was one of his six pledges for the forthcoming election.

The CML is encouraged that home ownership now has a higher profile within the political arena and with each of the main political parties than has been for the case for many years.

The CML is urging the government to implement the five-year housing strategy recently announced by the deputy prime minister John Prescott and to reform Stamp Duty by raising the £60,000 starting threshold and scrapping the current system whereby duty is levied at the highest marginal rate on the whole of the price of a property.

Michael Coogan, director-general of the CML, says: "We are not surprised that the Prime Minister has put the economy and housing right at the top of his list of election pledges.

"More than 80% of people want to be owner-occupiers and surveys show that home owners are consistently happier with their housing than tenants. Not only is home-ownership overwhelmingly the most popular tenure, it provides real benefits both for owner-occupiers and the government.

"Home-ownership gives people the greatest level of choice and autonomy over where they live.

"By giving people the chance to build housing equity on which they may be able to draw later, home ownership has the potential to reduce the extent to which people rely on welfare.

"It costs the government much less to support a household in low-cost home ownership than to provide subsidised rented housing."