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Key Worker Living programme
If you are a key public sector worker, such as a nurse or teacher, you, could get help to buy or rent a home as part the Key Worker Living Programme. Find out if you qualify and who to contact if you want to apply.
What the programme offers
If you are eligible, the Key Worker Living Programme means that you can get help with home ownership if you:
- are a first time buyer
- are a homeowner and need to buy a larger property to meet your household needs (eg family sized homes)
- need to take part in shared ownership schemes
- need to rent at affordable prices.
The scheme is only open to a specific keyworkers in London and the South East and East of England.
The programme offers three different kinds of help:
Open Market HomeBuy
An 'equity loan' to help buy a home on the open market. This can be up to 50 per cent of the total property value. An equity loan is a loan where the lender shares in any rise (and sometimes any fall) in the value of the property over the course of the loan.
New Build HomeBuy
If you are eligible you can buy at least 25 per cent 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).
Find out about other help available to keyworkers.
Are you eligible for the programme?
The programme is limited to keyworkers in the following areas:
- London
- Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
- Hampshire
- Surrey
- Hertfordshire
- Kent, Sussex and Essex
- Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire
- Norfolk and Suffolk
Jobs that are defined as a keyworker include:
- Clinical NHS staff (with the exception of doctors and dentists)
- Teachers and nursery nurses in schools and further education/sixth form colleges
- Police officers, Community Support Officers and some civilian staff
- Prison officers and some other Prison staff
- Probation Service staff
- Social workers, nursery nurses, educational psychologists, and therapists (eg.occupational therapists) employed by local authorities, CAFCASS, or the NHS
- Local Authority Planners
- Firefighters and other uniformed staff below principal level in Fire and Rescue Services
- Connexions Personal Advisors employed by a local authority or a Connexions Partnership
- Ministry of Defence (certain personnel)
- Qualified Environmental Health Officers/Practitioners who work in a local authority, government agency, NHS or other public sector agencies
- Highway Agency Traffic Officer staff in safety critical roles within the Traffic Officer Service
How to apply
The HomeBuy Agent for the area in which you live will be able to provide more detailed information on what is available locally. HomeBuy Agents are housing associations that provide all the information about home ownership schemes in each area and will handle the entire application process. To find out if you are eligible for help, you need to contact the HomeBuy agent listed below who covers the area you work in.
London
Metropolitan Home Ownership and Tower Homes
Phone: 0845 230 8099
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
Catalyst Housing Group
Phone: 0845 601 7729
Hertfordshire
Aldwyck Housing Association
Phone: 01582 869 440
Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire
(including Fenland and Peterborough, Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury)
Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association
Phone: 0845 456 6757
Norfolk and Suffolk
(except Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury)
Orbit First Step Housing Association
Phone: 0845 850 2050
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