Rachel Maclean, MP for Redditch County, visited the local branch of the Nationwide Building Society during the week that Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to dedicate her premiership to fixing the ‘broken housing market’.
Rachel spent time at the Evesham Walk branch of the UK’s second largest mortgage lender to learn more about the state of the local housing market, while meeting the team and learning more about the services Nationwide offers.
At the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, the PM announced a new generation of council houses by getting the Government back into the business of building houses. The affordable housing budget is to be increased by £2 billion to more than £9 billion, while the popular Help to Buy initiative is to be extended by £10 billion. There will also be new protections for people renting from a private landlord. These initiatives follow proposals in the Housing White Paper published earlier this year to ensure councils release sufficient land for housing and gives them new powers to require developers to build homes once they have been given planning permission.
Rachel said: “It was good to talk to the Nationwide in Redditch about the state of the local housing market, whilst exploring how they are offering innovative digital services alongside branch based banking for those who would rather conduct their financial affairs face-to-face.
“Making the housing market work better for buyers and renters in the UK is vitally important, so I’m pleased to see Nationwide taking a stand on this issue. Equally, keeping banking accessible is a key part of the local community.
“On national announcements last week, I agree with the Prime Minister that the boom in the housing market has meant that while some have done very well, for many the chance of getting onto the housing ladder has become a distant dream, and I’m delighted the Government has recognised these challenges.”