Leek United BS in Local Authority Mortgage Guarantee Scheme
An innovative partnership between a local building society and a Staffordshire council has been the key to a young couple buying their first home together.
Shaun Molden and Hayley Morris are the very first applicants under the Local Authority Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, run by Leek United and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council in collaboration with Sector Treasury Services Ltd.
They successfully completed their purchase at the end of August – and are now the proud owners of a 1900 terraced property close to the centre of Cheadle, Staffs.
“It would have taken us so much longer to save up for our own home without the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme,” said 22-year-old Shaun, a material supplier at a local factory.
“We opened a joint account with Leek United last year to begin saving for a house, and we were really pleased when we found out about the scheme.”
Shaun and 21-year-old Hayley – a veterinary nurse who has been a saver with Leek United for the last 10 years – are now finishing decorating their ‘new’ house before preparing to move in later this month (September).
The nationwide Local Authority Mortgage Guarantee Scheme is aimed at first-time buyers who can afford monthly payments but not the up-front deposit, and involves local authorities acting as mortgage guarantors for buyers with small deposits.
Potential buyers can obtain a 95 per cent mortgage on similar terms to a 75 per cent mortgage, with the council bridging the gap between a mortgage requiring a 25 per cent deposit and one requiring a 5 per cent deposit. Leek United is one of only eight lenders nationally to have signed up to the initiative.
“The Scheme was vital to Shaun and Hayley getting onto the property ladder, at a time when the gap between house prices and people’s incomes seems to be getting wider,” said Liam Flatley, Manager of the Society’s Cheadle branch where the couple arranged their mortgage.
“It allows first-time buyers who would be otherwise priced out of the market to buy their own home, so it was a very timely and welcome boost for them.”
