Barratt Developments and Legal & General Affordable Homes have joined forces to launch a new shared ownership scheme.

The Kickstart Shared Ownership scheme will be available to eligible buyers with a maximum household income of £80,000 or £90,000 for London, subject to affordability criteria. Buyers can purchase between 10% and 75% of the property, paying a subsidised rent on the remaining share.

This arrangement, the companies said, would make the scheme more affordable to those with smaller deposits as it would allow them to put down a deposit on the share they are buying, rather than on the full market value of the property.

Kickstart is launching on selected schemes in the Midlands, the North, West and East regions before being rolled out more widely.

Steve Mariner, Barratt Developments’ sales and marketing director, said: “We want to help as many people as we can to get onto the housing ladder through innovative new schemes like Kickstart.

“It is a great new way for people to be able to afford their new home because you start by buying a share of the home rather than the full market value of it. This means your deposit is lower, your mortgage is smaller and you can buy a larger share in the future.”

Ben Denton, Legal & General Affordable Homes’ ceo, commented: “We’ve always known that meeting the affordable housing demand in the UK required collaborating with others and growing the sector as a whole – this has been one of our ambitions from day one.

“Launching Kickstart with Barratt Developments will take the offer of shared ownership to more locations, making well built, energy-efficient homes accessible to more people, increasing their options of getting on the property ladder.”