The new Prime Minister has made one housing commitment that is impossible to miss, undertaking the council’s biggest housebuilding program since the post-war period.
These will mainly be homes to rent, which should ease pressure on the private rental sector, where rising rents have put pressure on affordability and made it difficult for aspiring first-time buyers to save a deposit.
Beyond this major pledge, the government has not yet set out its broader housing plans. I see this not as a source of concern but as an opportunity, and my plea to ministers is simple: listen to the people who work in this market, and to the issues that the industry has been raising for years without anyone ever hearing them.
We must build the right homes, as well as more of them
Here is Ami’s wish list for the new government.
First, homeownership should be placed alongside affordable rent as a key goal.
Owning a home remains one of the most effective ways for families to build long-term financial security, providing stability and assets that can support future generations.
The economic case is equally compelling. Homeownership builds household wealth, supports financial resilience, and generates activity that extends beyond the housing market itself.
Second, recognize the vital role that mortgage advisors play in transforming housing policy into good consumer outcomes.
The best housing policy will not be written by government, regulators or industry alone, but by all three together
Whether it is introducing new home ownership schemes or encouraging more flexible lending, the solution should never be to strip collateral in the pursuit of a faster ride. Borrowers today face a more complex market than previous generations, where shared ownership, family-backed mortgages, complex income, and more diverse repayment structures create opportunities as well as complexity.
As choice grows, career advice becomes more valuable, not less. It provides explanation, constructive challenge and long-term planning that helps consumers make informed decisions. It is at the heart of the advice ecosystem built around the client.
Rights to new homes
Third, build the right houses, as well as more of them.
Achieving housebuilding targets is essential, but so is adjusting the scale of what is built, with more starter homes and more attractive options for older owners to downsize, freeing up family homes and improving movement through the chain. If an alternative to Help to Buy is considered, it should carefully target first-time buyers purchasing entry-level properties, learning the lessons of the original scheme.
Recognizing the continuing importance of private property owners
Stamp duty is also worth reviewing, as the first-time buyer relief ends at £300,000, well below the lifetime maximum of £450,000, leaving buyers in more expensive areas facing a tax bill on the very purchase that Lisa was designed to support.
Achieving reform
Fourth, implement home buying and selling reforms. Ami has actively participated in the House Buying and Selling Council for several years.
The publication in June of the government’s reform roadmap, which sets out plans for pre-sales packages, digital ownership records and binding conditional contracts, gave the industry the clarity it had been calling for.
Pilot schemes using shared digital property data have reduced the time it takes to view a mortgage exchange to less than four weeks. However, the average transaction still takes about four months, and approximately one in three fails. A large part of the roadmap requires legislation, and our demand is that necessary bills be prioritized when Parliament reconvenes after the summer, because companies will only invest in change that they are confident will be achieved.
Learn about the vital role mortgage advisors play in transforming housing policy into good consumer outcomes
Fifth, recognize the continuing importance of private property owners.
Recent governments have often treated buy-to-let as an easy target, yet private landlords are providing housing to millions who cannot yet buy or who value flexible rental offers. Measures that push landlords out of the market before there is alternative housing risk making a difficult rental market worse.
Finally, housing policy must become more coherent. A coherent strategy requires ministers, regulators and industry to work together, and success must be measured not just in the homes that are built but also in the people who are housed, whether through social housing, private rent or home ownership.
The best housing policy will not be written by government, regulators or industry alone, but by all three together.
Stephanie Charman is Chief Executive of the Association of Mortgage Brokers
This article appeared in the September 2026 edition of Mortgage strategy.
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