Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss wants rental payments included in assessments for mortgages if she becomes Prime Minister.
Truss has vowed to “break down barriers” to support those renters who are keen to get on the housing ladder.
Official statistics show that more than half of current renters could afford a mortgage, but only 6% are able to access a typical first-time buyer mortgage.
This is due to most lenders not taking an applicant’s ability to pay a certain amount of rent as proof that they can afford to pay a higher mortgage.
Truss said: “People are getting older and older before they get their foot on the property ladder. It’s a problem not just for the Conservative party, but for the future of the country.
“As Prime Minister I would break down barriers and unlock the opportunity of home ownership for millions of hard-working renters across the nation.
“I will also rip up red tape that’s holding back housebuilding and give more power to local communities.
“As a former councillor, I remember those painful hours sitting through planning committees.”
Truss said the changes around rental payments and mortgages would form part of the mortgage market review pledged by outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
A poll by YouGov in February that showed three quarters of the public think that mortgage lenders should accept a history of regular rent payments as proof of affordability.
The Foreign Secretary, who is tipped to succeed Johnson in No 10, also said she would scrap the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.
Successive Government’s have failed to reach their house-building quotas and Truss will look to move the decisions on numbers away from central government and move it instead to local authorities.
It is understood that local authorities will then confirm the number of new homes they need.
