"There is a danger this becomes pointless": HTB comments on proposed Your First Home scheme

28 September 2026

Neil Leitch, Managing Director of Development Finance at Hampshire Trust Bank, comments on the proposed launch of the Your First Home scheme:

“Across HTB’s development finance book, we are seeing some encouraging signs on the sales side. Monthly sales as a proportion of completed stock are increasing, and we are seeing fewer funded sites go for two months without a sale. Against that backdrop, measures which help first-time buyers overcome the deposit barrier and support home ownership should be welcomed.

“But unless government sorts planning, there is a danger much of this becomes pointless. There is little value in stimulating demand for new homes if developers still cannot get viable schemes through the system in a reasonable and predictable way. The encouraging signs we are seeing on sales do not remove that front-end uncertainty. Planning remains costly, slow and inconsistent, and that is affecting both the number and type of schemes developers are prepared to take forward and where they commit capital.

“The requirement for participating developers to contribute towards the scheme also needs careful thought. Developers already face Section 106, CIL, BNG, significant upfront planning costs and additional requirements associated with building safety. These costs are not experienced in isolation. They accumulate within the same appraisal and directly affect viability. Government cannot keep adding costs to the delivery of the very homes it is trying to help people buy.”

“So yes, help first-time buyers. Buyer incentives matter. But if government wants that support to translate into more homes, it also must fix the supply side. Sort planning, properly resource local planning authorities, make decisions more consistent and predictable and hold the system to account for delivery. Otherwise, we are supporting people’s ability to buy while continuing to constrain developers’ ability to build.”