KEZIA Dugdale yesterday launched Labour’s Holyrood election fight by promising first-time home buyers £3,000 towards their property purchase if her party wins power in May.

Under the party’s first manifesto pledge, buyers who save for a deposit using the existing Help to Buy ISA scheme, set up by the UK Government, will be entitled to an additional £3,000, or £6,000 per couple, over three years from a Labour-led Scottish Government.

The party has costed the proposal at £103 million a year, and plans to pay for it using money from Air Passenger Duty (APD), which is to be devolved to Holyrood.

The SNP plan to cut APD by 50 per cent when a Scottish replacement is introduced in April 2018. Labour say the move would cost £125m a year.

Labour unveiled the pledge after official figures show a 15 per cent fall, to 28 per cent, of those aged 16 to 34 in Scotland owning their home with a mortgage, the lowest figure since the Scottish Parliament was set up in 1999.

The party had previously stated that it would use APD to help restore cuts to tax credits for working families, but the UK Government did not press ahead with the cuts.

The deposit boost would be “not just a break from austerity for my generation, but a boost for aspiration”, Dugdale is expected to say in a speech announcing the policy in Edinburgh today.

Under the Help to Buy ISA, savers receive a 25 per cent top-up up to the value of £3,000 from the UK Government. People can save up to a maximum of £200 each month.

Mirroring the ISA scheme, the new Scottish bonus would be paid direct to the buyer’s mortgage provider, and would be available for a property up to the value of £250,000.

The SNP dismissed the pledge, saying the number of first-time buyers was increasing after the introduction of new reforms to stamp duty.

“By taking this decision so no-one need pay Land and Buildings Transaction Tax under £145,000, over 6,000 additional home owners paid no tax in the first seven months of this scheme,” said Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil.

“Since 2007 we have helped 20,000 people on to, or up, the property ladder through our successful shared equity schemes and our Help to Buy programme.

“Through some of the toughest times in the recession we have helped young home owners the most, with nearly 75 per cent of those benefitting from our schemes aged between 18 and 35.”

The National View: Kezia Dugdale is aspiring in vain

