Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Conclusion 1
Fifth Report - Shared Ownership
Published 28 Mar 2024
Paragraph 36
Addressed to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee Shared Ownership All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Shared ownership products can often become unaffordable over time due to having to pay for 100% of repairs and maintenance costs despite only owning a proportion of the property. This is exacerbated by the fact that these service charges can increase over time, along with other costs such as rent. The 10 year repairs period only mitigates repairs and maintenance costs for those on the ‘new’ lease, and not those in properties delivered under the 2016–2023 Affordable Homes Programme. This, combined with the numerous and often unnecessarily expensive charges involved in the process of staircasing, makes it very difficult for many shared owners to complete their objective of staircasing to 100% and achieving their aspiration of full homeownership.
From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Fifth Report - Shared Ownership (HC 61), paragraph 36, 28 March 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 23 May 2024 (deadline 28 May 2024).