The Mayor of London is to pump millions of pounds of funding to launch two new schemes to help Londoners into affordable home ownership and speed up the delivery of new homes.

Shared ownership helps people on low to medium incomes own a home, requiring lower deposits, and will be given a further funding boost of up to £180m with The Mayor's First Steps Challenge Fund.

The Fund aims to accelerate the delivery of 4,000 new homes between 2015 and 2020 and is being made available on a recoverable basis so that money can be reinvested to provide more opportunities for affordable home seekers, helping achieve the Mayor's aim of assisting 250,000 Londoners into low cost housing by 2025.

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The Mayor is also giving up to £40m of loan finance to Gentoo's Genie for a new innovative housing product where buyers will need no deposit or mortgage to purchase their home and at the end of the agreement customers own 100% of the home outright. The scheme aims to deliver 2,000 new homes over the next 10 years, helping people who would struggle to save a large deposit for a mortgage.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "Shared ownership is crucial in helping the unprecedented numbers of people in London desperate for good quality low cost housing.

"Families need larger properties and Erith Park is testament to the number of well-designed affordable three bedroom family homes with gardens that can be delivered with good planning, major regeneration and investment.

"I want the funding announced today to help thousands more Londoners own homes and create more developments like Erith Park delivering excellent affordable properties."

(CD/JP)