Gordon Clown .Com

It seems that Gordon’s plans to help first time buyers onto the housing “ladder” have been met with total and abject failure, after the Telegraph revealed today that only 100 buyers have taken up the offer of the key workers scheme. The Government had targeted 6,500 completions a year, and yet has managed only a fraction of that since the scheme was launched over a year ago, in late 2005. Seems as though Gordon may be planning a rescue strategy in his Budget speech due on March 21st, although with the failure already there for all to see it’s hard to believe he can do much good to rescue the situation now. The article has more:

Just 100 first-time buyers have taken out mortgages under the Government’s pioneering shared-equity home ownership scheme with the private sector.

The Chancellor unveiled “Open Market Homebuy” with much fanfare in late 2005, setting a target of using the partnership to lift 20,000 key workers onto the housing ladder by 2010. It was officially launched five months ago, on October 1, with building societies Nationwide and Yorkshire as well as investment bank Morgan Stanley, under the Advantage brand. Halifax, the UK’s largest mortgage provider, has still to join despite being hailed as a flagship member. Even so, Gordon Brown wants more private sector involvement and is expected to launch “a new competition” in the Budget on March 21.

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A spokesman for the Communities and Local Government department said the scheme has had an “encouraging start” with 6,400 keyworkers qualifying for Open Market Homebuy. He added that a further 700 home purchases should be completed shortly.

For the Government to hit its target, however, it needs 6,500 completions a year and it is already raising its goals.