Star date: 14th December 2020

SUBSIDIES EVERYWHERE FOR MUSE AND LEGAL AND GENERAL DEVELOPMENT

Buyers of 33 new townhouses at Valette Square with prices ranging up to almost half a million pounds are being subsidised by the Government, via Help To Buy, with free fees and interest for five years on equity loans, and free stamp duty.

The developer, English Cities Fund, which is a joint venture between Muse Developments, Legal and General and Homes England, has already had all Section 106 payments waived by Salford City Council in favour of the controversial Development Trust Account...

Full details here...

The Government is subsidising buyers of 33 Valette Square luxury townhouses, which range in price up to £480,000, via the Help To Buy scheme.

While the scheme is helping first time buyers and home owners with good incomes, it's also helping the developer, English Cities Fund, or ECf, to flog the houses, which have already been generously supported by Salford City Council.

ECf is a joint venture between Muse Developments, Legal and General, and Homes England, and has been building unaffordable properties all along Chapel Street, at Timekeepers Square, Carpino Place and, lately, Atelier Homes.

The ECf is also the new partner of Salford City Council for the re-development of the Crescent, and was one of the companies that paid for Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett's trip to the MIPIM property orgy in the South of France.

Salford Council has waived all Section 106 payments (to mitigate the impact of the development) in favour of a secretive Development Trust Account, which basically takes money from profit-making sites to 'cross subsidise' what it calls 'non-viable' sites. In other words, to boost the profits.

After the cross subsidisation, the Council has stated, the fund pays for public realm and, lastly, affordable housing. So far not a penny has been put towards affordable housing that anyone can find. But, for Valette Square, the Council did insist on "a scheme for commemorating L. S. Lowry's 1926 drawing By The Courthouse within the development...in the interests of local identity and distinctiveness".

So, ECf is already being kind of subsidised by Salford Council. And it's also cashing in with help for potential buyers from the Government. Unsurprisingly, there are only three of the Valette Square houses left costing £385,000, which means buyers get a 20% equity loan (£77,000) with no interest or fees for the first five years, and a 1.75% charge in the sixth year. They have to find a 5% deposit and a mortgage for the rest. They also get free stamp duty until March.

"There's never been a better time to buy" understates the publicity, with applications for the Government scheme having to be submitted by tomorrow, 15th December.

The Help To Buy scheme has been slated for inflating house prices, while Which? revealed that one in seven of the properties bought via the scheme actually lose value. From 2021, there will also be new regional price caps which will reduce the maximum value of homes that can be bought through the Equity Loan Scheme to £224,400, after criticism that the Government is bulging the pockets of the well-off.

In an article in the New Statesman this year, Jonn Elledge wrote "Help to Buy was never really about helping first-time buyers as a class: it was about propping up home values and supporting developers, while at the same time helping a lucky few across the line into homeownership, thus generating a handful of good headlines and grateful voters while entirely stuffing everybody else.

"Last year, a Public Accounts Committee investigation found that more than 60 per cent of those who used the scheme could have afforded to buy without government subsidy" he added "Anyway. Turns out it's actually worse than I thought, because now it looks like a lot of the buyers who did use the scheme might be totally stuffed, too..."