Home Group, one of the UK’s largest providers of homes for sale and affordable rent, has announced its involvement in the Government backed Voluntary Right to Buy (VRTB) scheme, with the aim of helping its tenants become homeowners.
Home Group joins a select group of housing associations taking part in the pilot scheme across the Midlands. Pledging to work with local authorities towards a 2:1 replacement of homes, Home Group is not only helping to create new homes for tenants, but also supporting customers who aspire to get onto the property ladder.
The pledge reflects Home Group’s ambitious plans to increase the number of homes it builds to 10,000 and comes just weeks after it secured strategic partnership status with Homes England. Over the next five years the partnership aims to find innovative new ways of building homes that will further increase supply.
This pilot is the second to take place in the Midlands of Voluntary Right to Buy, testing two critical pillars of the original agreement that were not explored in the original pilot back in 2016. The first being one for one replacement and the second being portability.
Pictured above are two of Home Group’s customers at Tyneside Foyer in Newcastle.
Mark Henderson, Chief Executive of Home Group, said: “We’re big advocates of homeownership and want to do everything we can to help our customers own their own property, especially considering that 87% of them have said they would like to own their home.
“Voluntary Right to Buy gives our customers the opportunity to do that, but also helps us work towards our goal of building 10,000 new homes by 2021/22. We welcome this scheme and wish all our customers in the Midlands the best of luck for the ballot over the coming weeks.”
