Burnham unveils England first-time buyer plan with 20% equity loans

A new housing scheme for England will offer eligible first-time buyers a 20% equity loan towards a new-build home, Andy Burnham has announced. The programme, called “Your first home”, is intended for people with regular incomes who have struggled to save a large deposit or cannot rely on financial support from their families. Buyers would need to provide a minimum deposit of 2.5%.

The scheme would include household-income and deposit limits to exclude people with the highest salaries or substantial savings. Property-price caps would also restrict purchases to modest homes. Burnham said the programme would help more young people onto the property ladder while giving builders confidence to construct new homes.

He denied that the plan would simply push prices higher, saying the government would also work to increase housing supply. The scheme is due to be announced by Housing Secretary John Healey in the budget, with registration expected to open by the end of 2026. Officials said it would be funded by reprioritising existing government budgets, although the source material does not specify which budgets would be affected.

Developers would pay a fee linked to property values to help cover the programme’s running costs. The plan follows criticism of earlier help-to-buy schemes, which opponents said sometimes assisted buyers who could have entered the market without support and contributed to higher prices. Burnham also proposed changes to empty dwelling management orders.

Councils would be able to act on homes empty for six months rather than two years, and would face fewer evidential requirements when seeking to return long-term empty properties to use.