First Homes will remain inaccessible to a large part of the population. Those who can afford First Homes will likely be those who can already save or rely on family support. It will further help the ‘haves’ but not the ‘have-nots’.

Whilst First Homes will lower the deposit required to access homeownership, for the majority of families on ordinary incomes who are struggling to save anything at all, the scheme will not help them to ‘level up’.

To truly ‘level up’ we need to broaden the reach of home ownership to those who do not fall into this category. The inability to save for a deposit needs to be addressed, not just lowering the deposit itself.

Coronavirus is likely to exacerbate this problem, with many of those who did have savings being forced to dip into them.