A £60m support package extended to help first time buyers across Scotland find affordable homes was announced by First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday.

The Open Market Shared Equity Pilot, announced in January this year, was a £24m programme in 2008/09 covering 10 local authorities.

The scheme will be extended to the whole of Scotland, and in 2009/10 will have a substantially increased budget of £60m - reflecting another example of the Scottish Government bringing forward its capital spending programmes and helping families during difficult economic times.

The scheme follows the Scottish Government's decision to bring forward up to £100m this year and next to help meet the demand for affordable housing.

It will assist around 1,500 households on low incomes who want to buy, while helping people who are struggling to sell their properties by stimulating sales of properties in local housing markets.

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The First Minister said: "I am announcing an extension to the Open Market Shared Equity Pilot to offer first time buyers across Scotland the opportunity to own a home on a more affordable basis, only paying for part of it. The £60 million will enable Government to fund the remainder as an interest-free equity stake.

"In these difficult economic times, we are doing all we can to help families, households and businesses. Providing more access to affordable housing and greater support to first time buyers will also help stimulate our housing market.

"However, this Government will not stop there. We will continue to pursue the claim for the £1bn due Scotland from the Treasury - including our own Fossil Fuel Levy and underspend - to help fund a programme to reflate Scotland's economy and get us up and out of the downturn."

The Open Market Shared Equity Pilot (OMSEP) is part of the Scottish Government's Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT), to help people on low incomes buy an affordable home where that is sustainable for them. Buyers are normally expected to take an equity stake of between 60 and 80 per cent of the value of a home, with the Government's equity stake being used to pay for the rest. The scheme can help first time buyers to access the market even where they do not have a large deposit available as the Government's equity stake can effectively be treated as a deposit by many lenders.

(GK/JM)