There is a lot riding on the next week’s budget if you are a tenant hoping to get on the property ladder.

Chancellor Philip Hammond, along with many other senior government ministers, knows time is running out for the government to fix the ‘broken’ housing market before the next election.

Generation rent – the 30 and 40-year-old tenants who might have been expected to own their homes by now – are said to have been a significant factor in Theresa May’s poor showing at the polls at the recent snap General Election.

There are now twice as many people renting privately than there were a decade ago, and they’re an understandably unhappy lot.

Hammond is expected, therefore, to concentrate his efforts on the UK’s first-time buyers and wannabe home owners who, through fault of their own, find it increasingly hard to get out of their rented accommodation and own their own bricks and mortar.

So what's he going to fix? The three biggest challenges for anyone getting on the property ladder are: finding an affordable property to buy, securing a mortgage and paying the substantial moving costs.

The Chancellor can’t do much about house prices – or not in the short term at least – so the most effective levers he can pull are those for access to mortgages and moving costs.

Mortgages

To make mortgages easier to apply for it is hoped that Hammond will adopt the ideas put forward in a recent e-petition that received over 147,000 signatures and was, a few weeks ago, discussed in parliament.

During the debate MPs from a variety of different parties endorsed the petition’s request – that rental payments should count towards a tenant’s credit score.

Our research shows that nearly £100 billion of rent is not reported to credit agencies every year because - with the exception of our partner Experian - credit reference agencies won't take rental payments as proof of reliability.

So if Hammond can compel or incentivise credit reference agencies to add rental payments to people's credit scores then access to mortgages will be made easier for millions of people.

Moving costs

Hammond’s other aim, to make home buying cheaper for first time buyers, is to raise the threshold at which Stamp Duty is paid. Properties bought for under £125,000 currently attract a zero Stamp Duty rate, but this is hopelessly outdated in many areas of the UK and many are hoping it will be raised to £250,000.

The Chancellor may also extend or enlarge the current Help to Buy scheme – but this is unlikely as it was only a month ago when he announced a further £10 billion for the scheme, which has already helped 130,000 buy their first home since 2013.

Let's see what happens on Wednesday.

Remember, CreditLadder can help you improve your credit score.

CreditLadder can improve your credit position by reporting your rent payments. CreditLadder is the first way to improve your credit score and position across all three of the main Credit Reference Agencies in the UK, namely Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Building up a high credit score has a lot of benefits, including helping you access finance at better rates - this can also help save you money. CreditLadder also runs a free mortgage application service in partnership with Tembo which will tell you how much you could borrow.

Remember the content provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be considered as advice.