Burnham unveils "Your First Home" plan as Labour conference opens in Liverpool

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has unveiled a Government-backed equity loan designed to help first-time buyers in England reach the property market, announcing the "Your First Home" scheme on the eve of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

Under the proposal, first-time buyers would need to put down a deposit of just 2.5% of the purchase price, with the Government providing a loan worth 20% of the value of a newly built property. Burnham said the programme was intended to assist young people who lack financial support from family — describing them as those without the "bank of mum and dad" behind them.

Details of the loan remain incomplete. Burnham confirmed there would be an initial interest-free period on the equity loan, but said further specifications, including how long that period would last, would be set out in next month's Budget. Ministers have also declined to confirm whether the scheme will carry an age restriction or a cap on the maximum value of eligible properties — two of the design features that defined earlier Government attempts to support buyers.

The announcement came as Burnham arrived in Liverpool for his first party conference as prime minister. He said he wanted the gathering to be a "really important week where we set out a new direction for the country", and used the speech to criticise the past decade of politics. "We've had a decade since Brexit and it's been a decade of too much drift, too much division, and we need to draw a line on that," he said.

On funding, the Government said the scheme would be financed by reprioritising existing budgets, while housebuilders would contribute towards its running costs. That contribution is the focus of a sharp Conservative attack. Katie Lam, the shadow housing secretary, accused Labour of wanting first-time buyers to "take on even more debt to afford the few homes that have been built", and said taxpayers would end up taking a "stake in their homes" and "picking up the bill for months".

"Slapping another levy on developers risks pushing up the price of new homes too," Lam said. "This is a colossal admission of failure. This Labour government is making homes harder to build, then asking buyers to borrow more to pay for them." She said the Conservatives would seek to scrap stamp duty, "back British house builders" and ensure homes are "built in the places that people actually want to live".

The policy is closely modelled on the coalition's Help to Buy scheme, launched in 2013 by then-Chancellor George Osborne. Help to Buy itself built on an earlier programme, FirstBuy, which had been restricted to first-time buyers. The 2013 scheme widened eligibility to all purchasers and allowed them to buy a newly built home for a 5% deposit, provided the property was worth up to £600,000, with up to 20% of the cost met through a shared equity loan that was interest-free for the first five years.

Help to Buy ran in two phases. The first remained open until 2021. A second iteration, which lasted until 2023, brought back the first-time buyer restriction and applied region-based price caps to the properties that could be purchased. A government evaluation found that more than 387,000 properties were bought through the scheme, of which 328,000 were purchased by first-time buyers — though the report concluded that while the scheme was "effective in supporting people into home ownership in some areas, it did not remove affordability barriers for first-time buyers in areas that were already relatively expensive".

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said the new scheme would "build on the lessons learned from previous schemes, while retaining the benefits". The Home Builders Federation also welcomed the announcement, saying it had "long called for action to improve access to home ownership" and adding: "Our analysis shows a well-designed scheme can make a meaningful difference for households struggling to get on to the property ladder."

Burnham argued that the scheme would also give developers the "confidence to deliver the high-quality new homes the country needs", presenting the policy as an answer to a housing crisis in which, he said, "too many young people are struggling with the cost of housing, with many giving up hope of ever having a home to call their own. So we will step in to help more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder."

The intervention lands against a sobering supply picture. Rayner told the BBC earlier this month that there was only a "slim chance" the Government would meet its target of building 1.5m homes in England by the next election, though she said she was "not giving it up". Data up to June indicated ministers were behind the pace of construction required, a target industry figures have previously warned was too optimistic. BBC Verify analysis also found the number of new homes being built declined during Labour's first year in power, extending a downward trend that began under the Conservatives.

The Government used the eve of the conference for a second announcement, pledging quicker access to a guaranteed job for young people receiving health or disability support. Instead of waiting, unemployed 18-to-24-year-olds would be offered a job three months after they began claiming benefits, with the scheme starting next April. Labour said the state would cover 100% of wage costs for up to 25 hours a week for six months.

At present, jobless young people aged 18 to 24 must have been on universal credit for 18 months before receiving an offer under the Government's job guarantee scheme. Conservative shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said Labour should instead have reduced "burdens" on businesses to help get disabled people into employment. "Instead, they are bringing back a Conservative post-pandemic scheme. Andy Burnham clearly has no new ideas," she said.