Liberal Democrats launch Rent to Own scheme for first-time buyers

Under Liberal Democrat manifesto plans announced today, young people will be able to buy their own home without needing a deposit.

Instead the Rent to Own scheme will help first-time buyers onto the housing ladder by allowing them to build up a share in their home through renting.

This is a revolutionary shift in housing policy that will give young people caught in ‘generation rent’ a chance at home ownership.

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Research shows that home ownership has plummeted for under 35s in the last decade. The percentage of 25–35-year-olds owning a home has gone down from 59% to 36%.

Now, rather than being trapped in rental accommodation forever, working young people who are unable to afford a deposit will be able to become home owners.

Our policy builds on ground-breaking work by social enterprise Gentoo Group, who have rolled out a similar scheme – called Genie – in the North East and plan to expand into London later this year.

Rent to Own will see first-time buyers steadily build up a share in their home through monthly payments equivalent to rent until they own the property outright after 30 years, just like a normal mortgage.

Under Liberal Democrat scheme, the government would partner with housing associations and other providers to deliver Rent to Own houses where monthly payments are no higher than market rent.

This is forms part of Liberal Democrat plans to deliver 300,000 homes each year, with the government bridging the gap between private sector building and demand.
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Public meeting on future of Yearsley Pool

A public meeting will take place on Monday (16th March) to discuss the future of Yearsley Swimming Pool. 

Yearsley Pool campaigners

Yearsley Pool campaigners

The meeting will be at the 68 Youth & Community Centre on Monkton Road at 4:00pm. It has been arranged as part of a council scrutiny review into the future of the pool.

The review was setup following a request by Liberal Democrat councillors to re-consider Labour’s decision to cut the £250,000 annual subsidy given to Yearsley from 2016/17.

Monday’s meeting will ask residents and users for their views on the pool and will listen to ideas about how its future can be secured.

Before the public meeting, members of the cross-party review will go on a tour of the Yearsley facility.
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Bizarre twist in Oliver House sale

Greens say accept lowest of 23 offers for the site.

Three Green Party candidates for the Micklegate Ward have written to The Press newspaper to say that the Council should accept a £750,000 offer for the Oliver House site. Earlier in the week it was revealed that the highest offer was £3.2 million from a company that want to build 30 elderly persons apartments on the site.

Oliver House bid appraisal March 2015 click to enlarge

Oliver House bid appraisal March 2015 click to enlarge

In a letter to the local paper, the Green party candidates say a, slightly quirky, commune proposal for the site has their backing. They ignore the fact that the Council could not legally accept any offer which is more than £2 million below the market value.

This is the latest in a series of financial gaffs by the Greens who, at the  Council’s budget meeting, voted to increase car parking charges to fund a 6 monthly trial of a “fares free” bus linking the railway station to the hospital.

It was later admitted that the subsidy would be of little help for most bus passengers who would have already paid a “through” fare to get to the station and beyond.

The Greens budget amendment also failed to sustain funding for local community centres while they nodded through Labour plans for a £35 a year charge for green bin emptying and a move to 3 or 4 weekly grey bin emptying frequencies

The Council has now published further details of the offers that it has received for Oliver House. One table summarises each bid.

A second table indicates how each bid was scored with weighting being given to, not only the financial receipt, but also the quantity, type, quality and affordability of the planned housing.

Labour drop Guildhall candidate

Labour has dropped one of its Council candidates only a few weeks before nominations close for the polls on May 7th.

Aggarwal candidate announcement on Labour Web site

Aggarwal candidate announcement on Labour Web site

No reason has been given by Labour for dropping Rakesh Aggarwal as a candidate for the Guildhall Ward.  A massage therapist who had worked in York for 17 years, it was possible that he could have become Labour’s first Councillor from an ethnic minority background.

He has been replaced by a former York University student James Flinders who does not live in the Guildhall ward. He is believed to have been an associate of the disgraced former Council Leader, James Alexander, who standing down from the Council in May.

The Liberal Democrats have already announced their candidates for the Guildhall seat.

They are Mike Green, Nick Love and Derek Waudby