The Government has widened its subsidised housing scheme for key workers, to
help public sector HR teams attract and retain staff in the capital.
The £690m Key Worker Living initiative will now be available to more staff
in education, healthcare and in the police, fire and prison services.
Cara Davani, head of HR at the London borough of Tower Hamlets said the
programme would help services across London.
"People don’t have the same quality of life in London because of the
housing, so this is a clear opportunity to address that. This will definitely
do something to help our recruitment and retention initiatives," she said.
The Starter Home Initiative, launched in 2001, has so far helped 9,000
public sector employees into low-cost housing and Martin Tiplady, director of
HR at the Metropolitan Police, said 683 of the force’s employees have either
bought homes through the scheme or are in the process of doing so.
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The scheme will no longer be limited to first time buyers and the subsidies
are now available to a wider range of staff. The new loan amounts are also
expected to be higher than in the previous initiative.
In some parts of the UK, average house prices are now nine times higher than
the annual salary of some public sector professionals, according to a report
last month.
