Dugdale promises more help for first-time homebuyers

Kezia Dugdale will today reveal her first election pledge, as she promises first-time homebuyers in Scotland that a Labour government in Holyrood will effectively double the help they receive towards saving for a deposit.

The Scottish Labour leader will say later today that the party’s first manifesto pledge of the Scottish Parliament election campaign proves that “ambition and aspiration are Labour values.”

It will extend the help people receive from the first-time buyer ISA so that those who have saved up to the value of £3,000 would be entitled to an additional £3,000 under a Scottish Labour government.

Under the SNP the number of people aged 34 and younger in Scotland who have bought their own home with a mortgage has fallen by 15%. Just 28% of 16 to 34-year-olds in Scotland now own their own home with a mortgage – the lowest level since the Scottish Parliament was founded in 1999.

Dugdale is expected to say today current help to buy “scarcely match the scale of the problem” faced by young people. “Something has to give or this generation may never catch up, may never recover what they lost out on. Aspiration will simply pass them by.”

“The only use of new tax powers which the SNP have prioritised is their tax cut for those buying airline tickets. That is the extent of their ambition. A £125 million cut, rising to £250 million, for an industry which is experiencing record passenger numbers across Scotland and which is already receiving a massive financial boost from record low oil prices,” she will say.

“Even before you consider the environmental impact of this policy it would mean a minimum of £125 million additional cuts – that means adding to austerity rather than ending it. We will use the money to help young people to aspire to owning their own home again.”