Rob Jupp, CEO at Brightstar Financial, has derided the Government’s Help to Buy 2 Scheme which is due to launch next week.

Speaking at the Financial Services Expo (FSE) today, Jupp said it would have little or no impact on the specialist sector and was the wrong scheme at the wrong time, saying it did nothing to increase the supply of new homes. Talking about the scheme’s potential to inflate house prices further he said: “This is a misguided and mis-thought policy; it is a housing policy disaster. Every time the government get involved in the housing market they balls it up.”

Jupp also urged intermediaries to look for the opportunities in the growing specialist lending sector.

He outlined a number of potential product areas where advisers could see growing levels of business including clients with unusual incomes, those looking at purchasing unusual properties, short-term lending, self-build, secured loans and non-conforming.

Talking of potential clients who do not fit standard product criteria including the self-employed, those with poor accounts and offshore workers, he said: “Most of these individuals will not be able to get a mortgage with a high-street lender. The mutual sector has led the recovery in this area – lenders such as Saffron, Kent Reliance and Buckinghamshire. They are not lending irresponsibly but working and understanding the individual client.”

In addition, Jupp said that those who were disparaging about the short-term lending sector were working off ‘mis-information’. He suggested that a number of lenders currently working in this sector would become regulated first-charge lenders in their own right.

He also cited the recent launch of Magellan Homeloans as a potential game-changer in the non-conforming market suggesting that prior to the launch many interested institutions had not looked to enter the sector because they felt they would not receive FSA authorisation.

He said: “I have to say I was surprised to see the launch of a real non-conforming lender where the borrower actually needs to have non-conforming debt to qualify.”