Conservatives urge SNP to use money from Westminster to help first-time homeowners as property prices surge
The Scottish Government has been urged to help first-time buyers as house prices soar, with calls for the help to buy scheme to be reopened.
House prices in Scotland have risen on average by 17 per cent between March 2020 and August 2021, from £174,907 to £204,176.
Earlier this year, the Scottish Government ended two key programmes for first-time buyers: the affordable newbuild help to buy scheme and the first home fund.
The smaller developer portion of help to buy is open until the end of this financial year.
The Scottish Tories have now called for the full scheme to be restored, home building to be ramped up with a greater emphasis on affordable newbuilds, and for the threshold for land and buildings transaction tax to be increased to £250,000.
The party's housing spokesman Miles Briggs also called for a pilot scheme to be established in Edinburgh which would allow first-time buyers to own a share of a property in the city, where the aver
age home costs more than £300,000.
He said: "More and more potential first-time buyers across Scotland are being edged out of the market as prices sky-rocket. However, the SNP have closed off crucial supply lines of support that were previously available to them.
"The SNP have also resoundingly failed to meet their promises on building enough affordable homes. They are simply not on the side of firsttime buyers and that must change now.
"Over the course of this Parliament, first-time buyers must be at the heart of our housebuilding strategy.
"Ministers should immediately restore the help to buy scheme in full and raise the threshold for first-time buyers as to when they have to pay land transaction taxes."
The MSP said a generation of first-time buyers are being "left behind" by the Scottish Government, adding: "The SNP have the money available to them from the UK Government to go further and faster in their housebuilding programme.”
The Scottish Government said: "We continue to support home ownership and have schemes in place to help firsttime buyers through our LIFT scheme.”