Key Worker Programme

If you work in the education, health, police, fire or prison services and seek a mortgage, the Key Worker Living Programme may well be worth examining. It targets areas where house prices are considered to be prohibitively expensive for regular workers in those professions, so is geared towards those “key workers” in certain areas including London and the South East, Hampshire, Norfolk & Suffolk and Oxfordshire, who cannot afford to live near to where they work.

If you are a key public sector worker, such as a nurse or teacher, you might get help to buy or rent a home in this way if you are:

• A first time buyer.
• A homeowner and need to buy a larger property to meet your household needs, such as a family-sized home.
• Interesting in a shared ownership scheme.
• Wanting to rent at an affordable price.

Jobs that are defined as a keyworker include Clinical NHS staff (not including doctors and dentists), social workers, some Ministry of Defence personnel and Environmental Health Officers, as well as police officers, teachers, prison offers and probation service personnel. 

The products available are:

-          An Open Market HomeBuy: a loan to help buy a home on the open market. Key workers are expected to raise a mortgage of around 75% of the property's value.

-          A New Build HomeBuy: If you are eligible you can buy at least 25% of the cost of your home and pay a reduced rent on the remaining share.

-         Intermediate renting: Rent is set at a level between that charged by social and private landlords and the accommodation is provided by a landlord registered with the Housing Corporation (Registered Social Landlord).