Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) scheme information: FOI release

Information requested

1. The total number of applicants to the 2024 LIFT scheme, regardless of whether they secured a lift passport, broken down by local authority.

2. The total number of first time buyers issued with LIFT passports in 2024. Broken down by local authority area.

3. The number of first time buyers with valid LIFT passport who received funding from the OMSE scheme and secured an accepted offer on a property by the LIFT deadline of the 17th October 2024. Broken down by local authority area.

4. The average age of first time buyers who bought a house using OMSE LIFT in 2024.

5. The total available Scottish Government funding for the OMSE LIFT scheme for each year it has been in operation up to and including 2024.

6. The average price of a house bought by first time buyers through the OMSE LIFT scheme in 2024, broken down by local authority area.

7. Can you explain how the Government calculates the local authority price thresholds for each size of home. E.g why is the price threshold for a one-bedroom house in Shetland capped at £90,000? How does the government achieve this figure?

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. The enclosed PDF provides answers to your first, second, third, and sixth bullet point.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Specifically, we do not hold information to help answer your fourth bullet point: the average age of first time buyers who bought a house using OMSE LIFT in 2024. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because this information is not recorded by the OMSE scheme's administering agent, Link Homes, at the application stage or as part of the application process.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

To answer your fifth bullet point, the total available Scottish Government funding for the OMSE LIFT scheme for each year it has been in operation up to and including 2024, the table below outlines the OMSE budgets from 2008/09 to 2024/25:

Financial Year	Budget
2008/09	£14.4m
2009/10	£60m
2010/11	£20m
2011/12	£9.4m
2012/13	£20.8m
2013/14	£17.3m
2014/15	£48.7m
2015/16	£80m
2016/17	£70m
2017/18	£70m
2018/19	£70m
2019/20	£80m
2020/21	£70m
2021/22	£64m
2022/23	£60m
2023/24	£50m
2024/25	£27m

To answer your seventh bullet point, can you explain how the government calculates the local authority price thresholds for each size of home, the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme property price thresholds are set using comprehensive open market house sales data from Registers of Scotland. In urban areas, the threshold for purchasing a house with a given number of bedrooms in a given housing market area is set in line with the lower quartile house price for properties with that number of bedrooms which have been sold in that housing market. In rural areas, the median instead of the lower quartile house price is used, because, given the greater geographical dispersion in rural areas, this ensures that there is a reasonably sized pool of properties to choose from within a commutable distance. Using data from 2015-16, Registers of Scotland data, which contains the price for a property, was matched with Scottish Assessors data, which contains the number of bedrooms, allowing the lower quartile or median price to be calculated for houses with different numbers of bedrooms. For subsequent years, the thresholds have been uprated in line with overall house price inflation, as reflected in Registers of Scotland data, in the local authority in which each housing market falls, Thresholds are then rounded up to the nearest £5,000.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400438292 - Information released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

52.5 kB