The Government has a number of affordable housing schemes designed to enable people to get on the property ladder. The schemes vary, depending on the region in which you live, so it's worth contacting your local authority for more specific information.
Many of the schemes are designed for key workers - those employed by the public sector in jobs that are traditionally difficult to recruit and retain staff for, for example, nurses, teachers or policemen (find out more about key workers). One example, Key Worker Living, is a government scheme covering London, the south east and the east of England. The definition of a key worker varies, again depending on the region in which you live.
Chancellor Alistair Darling announced further incentives for key workers in his Budget announcement on 12 March 2008. This included suspending stamp duty payments for those on shared ownership schemes until they own 80% of their property and extending key worker shared equity schemes to people who can afford to buy 50% of a property. Previously, potential homeowners had to be able to afford 75% of the property in question to participate in the scheme.
