An inquiry into the “genuine affordability” of England’s two shared home ownership schemes has been launched by the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee. 

The all-party MPs committee will look how successful the Shared Ownership scheme and Right to Shared Ownership programme are in spreading home ownership. 

The committee says its probe “is likely to explore challenges around reselling, affordability issues such as service charges and maintenance responsibilities, and questions around mortgage availability and the limited range of providers is genuinely an affordable route to owning a home”.   

These measures are designed to help people to buy a share of a property, usually from a housing association, who then pay subsidised rent on the rest.  

They are sometimes known as ‘part buy, part rent’, with shared ownership homes requiring a smaller deposit and mortgage, which aims to make it a more affordable route into home ownership. 

The Shared Ownership scheme was first established in 1980, while the Right to Shared Ownership programme is delivered through the Affordable Homes Programme, which runs from 2021 to 2026. 

The Levelling Up committee will ask a number of key questions, including: 

• Do the schemes Shared Ownership and Right to Shared Ownership provide good value for money for the potential users of the scheme? 
• What support can be offered to Shared Ownership tenants given the impact of leasehold properties? 
• Is there a lack of mortgage providers for Shared Ownership properties? 
• How viable is full ownership through the Shared Ownership scheme and/or the Right to Shared Ownership Scheme? 
• Are alternative schemes such as ‘Rent to Buy’ viable and do they offer more value for money? 
• What more should be done to support first-time buyers and those from lower hold incomes onto the property ladder? 

The committee is inviting submissions based around these questions until 14 September. 

Levelling Up committee chair Clive Betts says: “Affordability of housing and home ownership is a key policy area, especially for first-time buyers during a cost-of-living crisis.  

“Shared ownership has, in the past, been hailed as an answer to the housing crisis for younger people, offering the cheapest way to get on the housing ladder.” 

Betts adds: “In the committee’s inquiry, we want to examine some of the barriers to homeownership through the Shared Ownership schemes in England and also look at issues such as the challenges faced by people in reselling these properties.  

“We want to explore whether shared ownership is providing the right answer for those people locked out of traditional home ownership and who are hit by rocketing private rents.”