Read our letter to Matthew Pennycook MP, Minister for Housing and Planning with responsibility for affordable homes, which shares the findings of our YouGov research into Discounted Market Sale Homes.

Dear Minister,

I’m writing as the CEO of Ecology Building Society, a mutual lender with a focus on delivering environmental and social benefit through our mortgages across the UK.

We’re known as specialists in community-led housing and lend on affordable homes, including shared ownership, and I wanted to share some research we’ve carried out on this subject.

In August, we launched a new product – our Affordable Local Homes mortgage – which we believe was the first designed specifically for the purchase of Discounted Market Sale (DMS) Homes.

We’d already researched this type of affordable housing while developing the new mortgage and at launch carried out an additional consumer survey with YouGov. We were dismayed to discover very low public awareness of the scheme, which is something the Government could help to rectify.

The independent research we commissioned from YouGov posed a number of questions to potential first time buyers across all regions and countries in the UK. I attach some of the key findings and would be happy to share the more detailed results.

Overall, fewer than one in 10 of those surveyed had heard of DMS, while knowledge in some areas, including Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire, was even lower.

The majority of respondents (82%) believed it was important to be able to stay in their local area.

Once DMS was explained to them, 59% expressed an interest in the scheme and said it could help them to buy a home.

When affordability for first time buyers and keyworkers can be so challenging in so many parts of the UK, it’s really important that these groups who need support can understand all the options open to them.

We would welcome efforts by the Government to better publicise affordable housing schemes such as DMS, which can benefit thousands of individuals, couples and families each year by enabling them to buy homes in their local communities, remaining close to family, friends and work and helping those areas to thrive.

We are also encouraging more lenders, through our membership of the Building Societies Association and other industry networks, to support these growing but under-served customer groups.

The eligibility criteria for DMS homes, such as residence restrictions, deter many mainstream lenders from offering mortgages on them, limiting finance options for these purchasers and risking locking them out of the very schemes designed to help them.

Ecology Building Society is among the minority of mortgage providers to lend on DMS Homes and offering more consumer choice in this market was the reason for creating our Affordable Local Homes mortgage.

Clearly, we were founded as a lender to empower home ownership but the ongoing housing crisis is about much more than bricks and mortar.

To be labelled a member of “Generation Rent” reinforces the sense of despair so many people feel at the prospect of never being able to buy a home of their own.

That’s why we believe affordable housing must make up a share of the mix of tenures in the 1.5 million new homes pledged by the Government, building better homes which are energy efficient and resilient to the changing climate as part of the just transition.

As one of the biggest challenges facing the Government, successfully tackling the housing crisis will yield manifold benefits: strengthening communities, boosting the economy nationally and locally, driving investment in infrastructure, and creating skilled jobs.

I’d be grateful for a response from your office to this letter, so I can relay to our Members your thoughts on affordable housing and what the Government is doing to bring homeownership within reach of more people.

I and the Ecology team would be delighted to meet you and your team to share our knowledge and expertise in this sector.

You would be very welcome to come to our headquarters in West Yorkshire, to learn more about our approach to lending and our motivation to create greener homes and more sustainable communities.

Gareth Griffiths
CEO, Ecology Building Society