Housing Minister Yvette Cooper visits MHO

March 06

Housing Minister Yvette Cooper calls in on

MHO

Minister of State for Housing and Planning Yvette Cooper today dropped in on Metropolitan Home Ownership (MHO), one of London’s leading providers of low cost home ownership. The purpose of her visit to MHO’s Southgate office was to build up to the launch of the Government’s new shared equity scheme which offers ways to help more people on low to moderate incomes buy their own homes. 

In last week’s budget, Chancellor Gordon Brown stated the Government’s intention to extend home ownership to a further one million people over the next five years.

During her visit, Ms Cooper met MHO Director Graeme Moran and Tower Homes Director, Steve Nunn, as well as customers and other staff involved in promoting affordable homes through the new Housing Options service.

Yvette Cooper commented: “"People need help to get that first step on the property ladder. It is good that schemes such as those run by MHO and Tower are able to help more people to do this. It's very interesting to note that many customers who have spoken to me today would have moved out of London if they hadn't have had this help."

Graeme Moran, Director of MHO, said: “The new HomeBuy and HomeBuy Agent branding developed with the ODPM should help enormously in building recognition of these programmes and explaining what help is available, where, how and for whom.”

“By working with our partner HomeBuy agent, Tower Homes, who serve South London, we will be able to offer customers and local stakeholders a one-stop shop for getting to know about, applying for and benefiting from affordable home ownership opportunities coming up in the capital.”

Yvette Cooper added: “The idea of having a one-stop shop like this one run by MHO and Tower Homes makes a real difference for first time buyers. Buying a house is complicated enough and we need to help people find their way through the maze.  We want to have one stop shops like this all over the country.”

MHO is working in partnership with Tower Homes to make home ownership affordable in London. The greatest benefit of the new Housing Options system is that customers only need to fill in a single application form to access the new HomeBuy products. Previously, buying a home from a housing association in London would involve many forms and a complicated search.