Shared Ownership

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 19 Jul 2023 Closed: 28 May 2024 Parliament page
The LUHC’s Committee’s inquiry will examine the challenges associated with shared home ownership schemes, including barriers to achieving full home ownership and whether shared ownership is genuinely an affordable route to owning a home. The Committee is also likely to explore challenges around reselling, affordability issues such as service charges … Read more
17 Recommendations
8 Conclusions
1 Report
2 Oral sessions
4 Letters
2 Events
Activity timeline 10 events
23 May
2024
Report published
28 Mar
2024
Report published
20 Feb
2024
Correspondence
30 Jan
2024
Correspondence
30 Jan
2024
Correspondence
17 Jan
2024
Correspondence
18 Dec
2023
Oral evidence
18 Dec
2023
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House
4 Dec
2023
Oral evidence
4 Dec
2023
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · Room 8, Palace of Westminster
Oral evidence sessions 2 sessions
18 Dec 2023
View on parliament.uk
Oral Evidence
Emma Payne · Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities The Baroness Penn · Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
4 Dec 2023
View on parliament.uk
Oral Evidence
Clare Miller · Clarion Dr Alison Wallace · Centre for Housing Policy, University of York Helen Spencer · Great Places Housing Group Oliver Boundy · Anchor Professor Stanimira Milcheva · University College London Steve Collins · Rentplus-UK Sue Phillips · Shared Ownership Resources
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Fifth Report - Shared Ownership HC 61 28 Mar 2024 25 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
6 results
Clear
4 Conclusion Accepted in Part
Fifth Report - Shared Ownership
Shared ownership affordability remains marginal, questioning its effectiveness for full homeownership.
Shared ownership as an ‘affordable homeownership’ scheme is predicated on shared owners being able to save enough money to staircase (eventually to 100%). However, its affordability appears to be so marginal for many shared owners that there is no guarantee … Read more
Government Response
The government acknowledges the importance of affordability and states that Homes England has been working with stakeholders to proactively update its affordability guidance, due to be published in Quarter 1 of 2024, while deciding against stress testing for service charges, but will keep this under review.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
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5 Recommendation Accepted in Part
Fifth Report - Shared Ownership
Improve Homes England's affordability calculator to model long-term costs and staircasing likelihood.
Homes England should assess how fit for purpose their initial eligibility and affordability calculator is. As part of this, it should evaluate whether to include a ‘long-term’ function within the calculator to model affordability over 5-, 10- and 15- year … Read more
Government Response
The government states Homes England is improving its affordability guidance, with new guidance due in Q1 2024. However, it rejects including long-term stress testing for service charges or incorporating staircasing assumptions into the calculator due to potential inaccuracy and unreliability.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
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7 Recommendation Accepted in Part
Fifth Report - Shared Ownership
Mandate OPSO providers highlight legacy service charge costs to prospective owners and families.
The Government must make it mandatory for providers of OPSO to highlight the potential legacy costs of service charges being passed on to family members to prospective shared owners and family members in line to inherit the property upon the … Read more
Government Response
The government commits to amending OPSO key information documents to highlight potential legacy costs to beneficiaries and will consider mandating providers to include this information. For supporting heirs with sales, it outlines existing options available to providers but states providers must decide how best to support.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
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10 Conclusion Accepted in Part
Fifth Report - Shared Ownership
Proportion of shared ownership housing stock lost to open market remains unclear.
It is currently unclear what proportion of shared ownership housing stock is being lost to the open market. This makes it impossible to judge what impact sales of shared ownership homes to the open market are having on the overall … Read more
Government Response
The government commits to reviewing all data on staircasing transactions, including back-to-back sales, and exploring further data improvement. However, it explicitly states it does not believe a plan to replace shared ownership homes lost to the open market is necessary, citing existing grant recycling requirements.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
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11 Recommendation Accepted in Part
Fifth Report - Shared Ownership
Review CORE data to assess shared ownership loss and publish replacement plan.
The Government must urgently review data it has from the CORE platform regarding the new question on whether staircasing transactions are part of a ‘back-to-back’ sale for 2023–2024, from which it must make an assessment of the extent to which … Read more
Government Response
The government commits to reviewing all relevant data on staircasing transactions once the 2023-24 reporting year concludes, but rejects the need to design and publish a plan for replacing homes lost to the open market, citing existing recycling provisions for grant funding.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
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20 Recommendation Accepted in Part
Fifth Report - Shared Ownership
Encourage providers to update terms of old shared ownership leases with financial incentives.
The Government should encourage providers to voluntarily update the terms of their ‘old’ shared ownership leases (for properties delivered under the 2016–2023 programme), particularly the minimum 990-year lease length and the 10-years repair period, and consider offering financial incentives for … Read more
Government Response
The government states it has encouraged providers to offer new model terms voluntarily and will continue to do so for upcoming homes. While happy to encourage updates for old leases, it notes significant practical barriers and argues financial incentives for the 10-year repair period are disproportionate. Crucially, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill will introduce a new statutory right for shared owners to extend leases to 990 years.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
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Government Response AI assessment · 25 of 17 classified
Accepted 7
Accepted in Part 6
Acknowledged 5
Deferred 2
Rejected 5
Total 17 recs + 8 conclusions
Correspondence 4 letters
20 Feb 2024 To committee Letter from Shared Ownership Resources to the Chair regarding a follow up to oral evidence on shared ownership, dated 13 February 2024
Parliament page
30 Jan 2024 To committee Letter from the Chief Executive of Rentplus to the Chair regarding the Committee’s inquiry into Shared ownership, dated 19 December 2023
Parliament page
30 Jan 2024 To committee Letter from the Minister for Housing and Communities to the Chair regarding the Committee’s inquiry into Shared ownership, dated 24 January 2024
Parliament page
17 Jan 2024 To committee Letter from the Chair to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Housing and Communities relating to an oral evidence session on shared ownership, dated 17 January 2024
Parliament page