Support for first-time buyers could come in the form of boosted savings or new affordable homes as experts warn Britain’s housing market is “the most dysfunctional it has been for decades”.
Major developers are slashing their targets for the number of new houses they hope to build this year, while housebuilders have “slowed down and scaled back” projects because of serious concerns about whether there are enough buyers to purchase new build homes.
As a result, Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey are believed to be working up some form of support for first-time buyers in a bid to grease the wheels of the housing market ahead of the Budget next month.
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Everything you need to know about the Russian elections
Caption: TOPSHOT – Russian President Vladimir Putin walks down the steps to address troops from the defence ministry, National Guard, FSB security service and interior ministry gathered on the Sobornaya (Cathedral) Square from the porch of the the Palace of the Facets on the grounds of the Kremlin in central Moscow on June 27, 2023. (Photo by Sergei GUNEYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: SERGEI GUNEYEV
Provider: SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images
Source: AFP
The pro-Putin ruling United Russia party retained its decisive majority in the national parliament, near-complete election results showed on Monday, while the anti-war Yabloko party appeared to have won a tiny foothold in one regional parliament.
The background
Vladimir Putin had cast the three-day election to the State Duma – the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022 – as a test of support for the war.
Elections for some regional parliaments and governors were held at the same time.
In a tightly controlled political system, which critics say does not tolerate genuine dissent, few surprises were expected.
Exclusive
3 min read
A closer look at the results
With over 95 per cent of the vote counted, Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Central Electoral Commission, said United Russia had won a resounding victory with 57.83 per cent, up from the 49.8 per cent that it won in the last parliamentary election, in 2021.
Analysis
4 min read
4 min read
What else you need to know
United Russia was set to control 355 seats or nearly 80 per cent of the 450-seat Duma, a total that includes results in individual constituencies.
That would maintain its constitutional majority – enabling it to pass laws and initiate amendments to the constitution without support of other parties.
Pamfilova said three other parties had made it into parliament – the Communists with 13.81 per cent, the ultra-nationalist LDPR with 8.98 per cent, and the New People party with 7.96 per cent.
read the i paper’s latest analysis
What Putin’s paranoia will lead him to do next
“Stalin knew how to run Russia and how to get respect. Vladimir Putin could learn something from him.”
Caption: Television programme: That Mitchell and Webb Look.
Picture shows: Captain Good (Robert Webb) and Monsieur Voirons (David Mitchell)
TX BBC Two Thursday 11th June 10.00pm
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Provider: BBC
Copyright: BBC PICTURE ARCHIVES
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BBC removes That Mitchell and Webb Look sketches from iPlayer
The BBC has removed several sketches from That Mitchell and Webb Look on iPlayer after deciding some of the comedy show’s material “no longer works today”.
Controversial material removed
The sketch comedy show, starring comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb, originally ran for four seasons between 2006 and 2010.
Caption: TELEVISION PROGRAMMES: THAT MITCHELL AND WEBB LOOK.
PICTURE SHOWS: ROBERT WEBB AND DAVID MITCHELL
Sir Walter Raleigh (David) names his latest discovery Virginia. His First Mate wonders if it’s “a bit personal, to name a new land after the fact that our Queen’s never done it”.
BBC Two: Thursday 21st Feb 2008
BBC WARNING: Use of this copyrighted image is subject to Terms of Use of BBC Digital Picture Service. In particular, this image may only be used during the publicity period for the purpose of publicising ‘That Mitchell and Webb Look’ and provided the BBC is credited. Any use of this image on the internet or for any other purpose whatsoever, including advertising or other commercial uses, requires the prior written approval of the BBC.
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Caption: Television programme, ‘THAT MITCHELL AND WEBB LOOK’. BBC Picture shows: Rob Webb and David Mitchell as Phillips (a scientist) and Monsieur Garnier TX BBC TWO TUESDAY 12TH JULY 2010
Photographer: BBC/Sue Foll
Provider: BBC
Copyright: BBC PICTURE ARCHIVES
However, some material has been removed, including scenes featuring war re-enactors in Blackface, a joke about Jimmy Savile and a sketch about a contestant on a makeover show wearing a burka, The Times reported.
What did the BBC say?
This is a 20-year-old sketch show; in consultation with the programme makers, we have included the ones that still work today and not the ones that don’t.
bbc spokesperson
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Flights disrupted across north of UK – what you need to know
Caption: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – SEPTEMBER 08: Passengers wait inside and around London Heathrow Airport following widespread flight delays and cancellations caused by a technical failure in National Air Traffic Services’ (NATS) flight processing system in London, United Kingdom, on September 08, 2026. Technical issues are causing disruptions in flight departures at UK airports, Britain’s air traffic control service said Wednesday. (Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Photographer: Anadolu
Provider: Anadolu via Getty Images
Source: Anadolu
Flights across the UK – particularly Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England – are facing disruption due to a “technical issue” with air traffic control.
Here is everything you need to know – including the airports affected.
What caused the problem?
Nats, which runs air traffic control, has said the issue at its Prestwick centre in Ayrshire is “now fixed”, and that it is working to “safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can”. It said the glitch was a “connectivity issue with part of our systems network”.
Aviation analytics company Cirium said as of 5.30pm, 357 flights had been cancelled or not taken off at UK airports on Wednesday (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty)
Caption: Travellers lay on the floor with their luggage at the South Terminal of London Gatwick airport near Crawley, southern England on September 9, 2026, following second day of major disruption due an issue affecting the NATS air traffic control systems. UK travellers faced more misery on September 9, with more than 150 flights scrapped across the country, as Britain’s air traffic control service scrambled to recover from a technical glitch that sparked chaos. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: JUSTIN TALLIS
Provider: AFP via Getty Images
Source: AFP
Copyright: AFP or licensors
Second failure in two weeks
This is the second failure at Nats in less than a fortnight.
But it said this most recent disruption has “nothing to do” with the software defect that led to the cancellation of 2,000 flights across the UK earlier this month.
Europe has just six weeks of jet fuel supplies, experts have warned (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD / AFP via Getty Images)
Caption: TOPSHOT – Cancelled flights are pictured on an electronic check-in display board at Terminal 3 of London Heathrow airport, west of London on September 8, 2026, following major disruption due an issue affecting the NATS air traffic control systems. Flights to and from the UK were cancelled on on September 8, due to a “technical issue” affecting UK’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which says it is working to resolve the situation. (Photo by Henry NICHOLLS / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: HENRY NICHOLLS
Provider: AFP via Getty Images
Source: AFP
Copyright: AFP or licensors
EasyJet said this “once again calls into questions the resilience of Nats’ systems”.
Airports report disruption
Airports across the UK have reported varying degrees of disruption. They include:
Glasgow and Aberdeen – Arrivals and departures.
Manchester – Issue causing some delays.
Newcastle – Experiencing “some delays”.
Liverpool – Urging passengers to contact their airline.
Bristol – Experiencing some delays and cancellations similar to other airports.
London City – Experiencing “some disruption” and “working closely” with Nats to resolve the issue.
Belfast City – Warns that there “will be disruption” to both arrivals and departures.
A Government spokesperson said “There are no current plans to introduce a new Help to Buy scheme”; however, The i Paper understands that a different offer for first-time buyers is being considered.
This could include a new, targeted equity loan scheme like New Labour’s HomeBuy Direct – which was actually the forerunner to Help to Buy and launched in 2008.
A new First Time Buyer ISA with no upper age limit is already under review and a third option could be to build homes which are specifically reserved for first-time buyers, offered at slightly cheaper than market prices.
Average UK mortgage rates now sit above 5 per cent due to inflation expectations and global economic volatility, crushing buyers’ borrowing power at a time when British housebuilding is already in the doldrums.
Data for the 12 months leading up to June 2026 suggests that about 203,000 new homes were delivered in England that year, far short of the 300,000 needed to meet the government’s target of 1.5 million new homes by 2029.
The situation is so serious that Britain’s economic watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), may now downgrade the growth forecast that had been attached to Labour’s housebuilding plans, which could have a knock-on effect on housebuilders’ ability to get investment as well as the cost of government borrowing.
Certain government advisors and housebuilders themselves are understood to be pushing the Government to “do something like Help to Buy”.
Off the back of a new evaluation of the scheme’s equity loans for first-time buyers, which found that it delivered £25bn of social value to Britain and helped to boost both homeownership and housebuilding, there is appetite in Westminster to find a way to get credit to households that wouldn’t have been able to buy a home without government support.
However, housing policy expert and former government advisor Rose Grayston said “any first-time buyer support needs to be carefully designed in light of higher interest rates, low house price growth and threats to the economy”.
“We can’t transplant a solution from ten years ago onto today’s economic conditions and expect to get the same results,” Grayston said.
House prices ‘no longer rising’ – this is why
There is valid cause for concern about any intervention in the housing market.
According to expert housing market analyst Neal Hudson, Britain’s housing market is currently experiencing a “long and slow correction” in house prices which mostly looks like “stagnation” with prices “no longer rising” except in London and the south east of England where house prices are falling according to the Office for National Statistics.
Some Whitehall insiders even fear that what is unfolding is, in fact, a protracted “crash” in house prices.
“House prices have stopped rising, but there have been limited falls so far,” Hudson explains in a more measured way. “Instead, we are reliant on a long and slow improvement in affordability as wages catch up with house prices.”
In the short-term, however, the situation is causing pain for housebuilders and, by extension, Britain’s economy as a whole.
Some housebuilders have been “forced” to stop buying new land while others have “slowed down and scaled back” their building projects because of serious concerns about whether “there are enough buyers out there to buy the new housing they would build”, according to Steve Turner, executive director of the House Builders Federation (HBF).
Major developers such as Barratt Redrow have cut their forecasts for the number of new homes they hope to build this year. Britain’s biggest housebuilder, which built 17,667 homes between July 2025 and June 2026, had been aiming to increase output in its current financial year to between 17,700 and 18,200 homes. However, they now expect to build somewhere between 17.500 and 17,900.
Burnham’s government finds itself in a tight spot when it comes to housing. The former prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, had pinned much hope on flagship planning reforms – now the Planning and Infrastucture Act – in the hope that cutting red tape would speed up housebuilding.
However, so far, even though there has been an uptick in planning applications, it has not translated into completed new homes.
Grayston explains that Labour cannot expect “the planning system to solve a macroeconomic problem.” She said: “If we look at London in particular, we’ve now got lots of planning permissions, but there isn’t the demand from buyers who can get mortgages in the economy to build those out.”
Hudson and other housing experts have long been warning that Britain’s housing market was stalled because house prices were so high that interest rate hikes – like those triggered by Putin’s war in Ukraine and Liz Truss’s so-called “mini-budget” – stretched affordability for buyers beyond what banks would lend.
Meanwhile, Turner said it was no longer “financially viable” for builders to develop some sites “because of additional taxes like the building safety levy and landfill tax that have been layered onto housebuilders”.
He also warned that inflation of materials costs had pushed builders to their limit. “As a result of the layering on of new taxes, policy costs and material price inflation, it now costs £76,000 per house more to build a house compared to five years ago,” Turner said.
“The industry is having to reduce its outgoings and slow down building because of these challenges. We have seen many SME builders go out of business,” he added.
The options for help
Grayston says that potential solutions could include releasing land from the Green Belt specifically for homes that don’t rely on demand for market sale, like social homes, Build to Rent and, potentially, homes that are specifically for first-time buyers.
These first-time buyer homes, should be “available at discounted market rates because if you bring down the price of the home and you bring down the mortgage that people need to take out”, she said.
Hudson said that Burnham had inherited “a load of underlying issues that have been building up in the housing market and brought to the fore by higher interest rates.”
“We need more clarity of thinking about how we actually deal with them,” Hudson added.
He suggested one way to solve the problem would be to “subsidise demand” by bringing forward “a load of social and affordable housing funding” to ensure that developers could build purely affordable housing while also upping government funding to ensure the affordable housing included in private developments actually gets built because this would “de-risk market developments”.
So far, despite promising a landmark package of £39 billion for social and affordable housing (SAHP) over ten years, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has only managed to get £10 billion out of the door.
As part of this announcement, she told The i Paper that there was a “tilt” towards council house building. This was met with anger from some housing associations who deliver social and affordable homes.
Executives from one major housing association said they were “f*****g livid” with the decisions, arguing that they are the only organisations which can “actually build new homes” at the moment due to the constraints private developers of homes for market sale are facing.
Housing and Planning Minister Pennycook has sought to reassure housing associations.
Speaking at the Housing Community Summit on 9 September, he said: “Our housing market is resilient, and I have no doubt that it will not take long to recover, but as this audience knows only too well, these are tough times for housebuilding in England.”
The minister went on to say that “much more can and will be done” to ensure that both councils and housing associations can “flourish”.