Rupert Jones meets the teacher priced out of HomeBuy

Rupert Jones meets the teacher priced out of HomeBuy

it's been hailed as the answer to thousands of first-time buyers' prayers, but a new government scheme to give people a leg-up on the property ladder will do little to help some of those key workers most in need of assistance, it was claimed this week.

John Hartley, who teaches children with severe learning difficulties, is precisely the sort of person you would imagine would stand to benefit from the recently launched Open Market HomeBuy initiative offering cut-priced mortgages. But sky-high property prices in the London borough where he lives and works mean that, with his salary, he is unlikely to be able to access the scheme.

He feels as if, rather than getting closer, the property ladder is being pulled ever further out of his reach. And he's almost certainly far from alone.

To add insult to injury, it emerged last weekend that subsidised flats meant for teachers and nurses are ending up in the hands of people who are not key workers. An investigation by the BBC's Five Live Report that centred on Chelsea Bridge Wharf in London found many flats had gone to well-paid professionals and top executives.

The Open Market HomeBuy scheme was launched with much fanfare three weeks ago. Under this initiative, homebuyers have to take out a mortgage for 75% of the purchase price, with the government and mortgage lenders sharing the rest of the cost.

Housing minister Yvette Cooper said this shared equity scheme would help an extra 20,000.....continued below

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people buy their own home between now and 2010. It is primarily for key public sector workers in London, the south-east and East Anglia.

Mr Hartley, 34, says that when he read about the new scheme, it just left him feeling frustrated about the lack of opportunities available to people in his position. He has written to Ms Cooper to ask "what advice (and hope?) you can offer my family and I as we contemplate the available options: housing benefit and the permanent insecurity of private renting, overcrowding in our present home, and unaffordable home ownership".

Mr Hartley, his partner and their three children - a boy aged nine, a girl aged seven, and a four-month-old son - are squeezed into a two-bedroom council flat in the London borough of Harrow, where he works.

He says that a glance through the local paper suggests that on average, three-bedroom houses in Harrow typically sell for £300,000-plus. For him to be able to afford a suitable home on the open market, he would have to take out a mortgage for 10 times his annual salary - clearly not a realistic proposition. Under Open Market HomeBuy, he would "only" have to raise three-quarters of the purchase price - meaning the mortgage required would still be getting on for eight times his salary.

Mr Hartley says that they are luckier than some; at least they have a place to live. But with their new arrival, things are cramped and they are on the waiting list for a three-bedroom property. Only one problem: he was told that the average wait for transfer into a three-bedroom home was six years, while the longest wait was 15 years... by which time his oldest child would be almost 25.

Can that possibly be right? It appears it is; Harrow Council told Guardian Money that, "unfortunately," severe shortages of housing mean the average wait is five to six years.