Home Purchase Assistance and Housing Corporation Guarantee Act 1978
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1978 c. 27 |
| Year | 1978 |
Home Purchase Assistanceand Housing CorporationGuarantee Act 1978
1978 CHAPTER 27
An Act to authorise the use of public money for assisting first-time purchasers of house property, and for connected purposes; and to increase the financial limit governing the Housing Corporation's power to guarantee loans to housing associations and others.
[30th June 1978]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Assisted home purchase
1 Advances to lending institutions.
(1) The Secretary of State may make advances to recognised lending institutions enabling them to provide assistance under this Act to first-time purchasers of house property in Great Britain, where it is property in which the purchaser intends to make his home.
(2) The assistance is to be available where finance for the purchase of the property (and improvements, if any) is obtained by means of a secured loan from the lending institution and the purchase price is within such price-limits as the Secretary of State may prescribe from time to time by order; and different limits may be prescribed for properties in different parts of Great Britain.
(3) Assistance under this Act is to be dependent upon the purchaser satisfying conditions with respect to his own savings; and the first condition is that he shall—
(a ) have been saving with a recognised savings institution for at least 2 years preceding the date of his application for the assistance; and
(b ) throughout the 12 months preceding that date, have had at least 300 of such savings;
and the second condition is that he shall by that date have accumulated at least 600 of such savings; but the Secretary of State may allow for the conditions to be relaxed or modified in particular classes of cases.
(4) Assistance under this Act may be given as follows—
(a ) the secured loan may be financed by the Secretary of State to the extent of 600 (that amount being normally additional to that which the institution would otherwise have lent, but not so that the total loan can exceed the loan value of the property);
(b ) 600 of the total loan may be made free of interest, and of any obligation to repay principal, for up to 5 years from the date of purchase; and
(c ) the institution may provide the purchaser with a bonus on his savings (which bonus shall be tax exempt), up to a maximum of 110, payable towards the purchase or expenses arising in connection with it.
(5) The purchaser can qualify for assistance under subsection (4)(a ) and (b ) by satisfying both the conditions of subsection (3), and qualify for bonus under subsection (4)(c ) by satisfying only the first of those conditions; but he does not in any case qualify unless the amount of the secured loan is to be at least 1,600 and not less than 25 per cent. of the purchase price of the property.
(6) The Secretary of State may from time to time with Treasury consent by order—
(a ) alter any of the money sums specified in subsections (3), (4) and (5), and the percentage figure in subsection (5) above;
(b ) substitute any longer or shorter period for either or both of the periods mentioned in subsection (3);
(c ) alter the second condition of subsection (3) so that purchasers can also satisfy it with lesser amounts of savings, and enable assistance under subsection (4)(a ) and (b ) then to be given according to reduced scales specified in the order.
2 Administration, etc.
(1) The lending institutions recognised for the purposes of section 1 are specified in Part I of the Schedule to this Act, and the savings institutions so recognised are specified in Part II of the Schedule; and the Secretary of State may with Treasury consent—
(a ) add to either Part of the Schedule by order;
(b by order made in the case of a body named in it direct (but only after giving an opportunity for representations to be made on the body's behalf) that it be no longer a recognised institution.
(2) Advances to lending institutions shall be on such terms as to repayment and otherwise as may be settled by the Secretary of State with Treasury consent, after consultation with lending and savings institutions or organisations representative of them; and the terms shall be embodied in directions issued by the Secretary of State from time to time.
(3) The following matters (among others) may be dealt with in the Secretary of State's directions—
(a ) the cases in which assistance under this Act is to be provided and the method—
(ii) of quantifying bonus by reference to savings;
(b the considerations by reference to which a person is or is not to be treated as a first-time purchaser of house property;
(c ) the steps which must be taken with a view to satisfying the conditions of section 1(3), and the circumstances in which those conditions are or are not to be treated as satisfied;
(d ) the supporting evidence and declarations which are to be furnished by a person applying for the assistance, in order to establish his qualification for it, and the means of ensuring that restitution is made in the event of it being obtained by false representations; and
(e ) the way in which amounts paid over by way of assistance under this Act are to be repaid to the lending institutions and the Secretary of State.
(4) The Secretary of State may, to the extent that he...
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