Ministers turn to luxury property influencer couple more used to promoting £30million mansions for help selling their first time house buyer scheme

  • The UK government featured Summer Newman and Matt Mellor in a paid advert
  • They fronted the clip for Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities
  • The new YouTube video showed 21-year-old and 24-year-old explain the scheme
  • But they were blasted for being 'cigarette salesmen fronting asthma awareness'

By Rory Tingle and James Gant For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Ministers have turned to a luxury influencer couple used to promoting £30million mansions to help sell the first time house buyer scheme.

The government featured Summer Newman and Matt Mellor in a paid advert for the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities.

The glamorous YouTube video shows the 21-year-old and 24-year-old explain the scheme while showing off Bentleys and Ferraris in a fancy garage.

But ministers and the pair have been blasted for the clip, which was compared to a 'cigarette salesmen fronting asthma awareness'.

Ms Newman and Mr Mellor rose to fame by posting videos on social media of them touring luxury properties.

The couple, from Rugby in Warwickshire, recently looked around a £30million mansion and a £10million pad in London.

But they are currently out in Marbella in Spain promoting expensive villas for their latest videos.

Ministers have turned to a luxury influencer couple used to promoting £30million mansions to help sell the first time house buyer scheme

Ministers have turned to a luxury influencer couple used to promoting £30million mansions to help sell the first time house buyer scheme

The government featured Summer Newman and Matt Mellor in a paid advert for the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities

The government featured Summer Newman and Matt Mellor in a paid advert for the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities

The glamorous YouTube video shows the 21-year-old and 24-year-old explain the scheme while showing off Bentleys and Ferraris in a fancy garage

The glamorous YouTube video shows the 21-year-old and 24-year-old explain the scheme while showing off Bentleys and Ferraris in a fancy garage

The mortgage guarantee scheme explained:

First-time buyers have been able to get Government-backed mortgages with deposits of 5 per cent from five major banks and building societies since April.

The scheme, which is also open to current homeowners, was first announced in March and sees lenders advance 95 per cent of the purchase price on homes worth up to £600,000.

The Government underwrites the mortgages in order to give lenders the confidence to offer loans with such low deposits.

This is the first time that all the big banks have offered mortgages with 5 per cent deposits since May 2020.

The scheme is open to new applications until 31 December 2022, and people from every country in the UK has access to them.

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Their advert for the government, shared on their YouTube page on October 10, links to the Own Your Own Home page on gov.uk.

The clip is titled: 'How you can buy a property in the UK with a five per cent deposit through the mortgage guarantee scheme.'

Mr Mellor says: 'You may know we tour lots of amazing luxury real estate on here and we also document and vlog our own property investment.

'Today we are going to be talking about the mortgage guarantee scheme and how you can purchase a property in the UK on a five per cent deposit.

'So this is helping you access the housing ladder sooner.'

The clip was shared with the comment: 'The mortgage guarantee scheme announced at Budget 2021 and launched on April 19 2021; will help to increase the supply of 5 deposit mortgages for credit-worthy households by supporting lenders to offer these products through a government backed guarantee on new 95 per cent mortgages until December 31 2022.'

Labour councillors vented their fury at the couple fronting the advert for affordable homes.

Aydin Dikerdem said: 'Dunno if I'd pick buy-to-let landlords as my levelling up help-to-buy scheme ambassadors to be honest.'

The Queenstown in Battersea added: 'It's like cigarette salesmen fronting asthma awareness.'

Ms Newman has 1.2million TikTok followers while Mr Mellor has more than 300,000 - and they have a combined Instagram following of 65,000.

Their company - Matt and Summer Property - had assets of £50,000 in 2020, according to documents lodged with Companies House.

Their advert for the government, shared on their YouTube page on October 10, links to the Own Your Own Home page on gov.uk

Their advert for the government, shared on their YouTube page on October 10, links to the Own Your Own Home page on gov.uk

Their company - Matt and Summer Property - had assets of £50,000 in 2020, according to documents lodged with Companies House
Their company - Matt and Summer Property - had assets of £50,000 in 2020, according to documents lodged with Companies House

Their company - Matt and Summer Property - had assets of £50,000 in 2020, according to documents lodged with Companies House

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