Oral Answers to Questions

Christopher Pincher Excerpts

Monday 8th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Brandon Lewis]

I say to the hon. Lady, as I have said before, that we will make sure that the most vulnerable in our society are protected. We are also boosting supply with £400 million-worth of funding announced in the spending review to deliver specialist affordable homes for the vulnerable, the elderly and those with disabilities. Of course, there is also our £5.3 billion investment in the better care fund, through which we are looking to integrate health and social care.

[Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)]

2. What progress his Department has made on the Help to Buy and Right to Buy schemes.

[The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark)]

I associate myself with your sentiments, Mr Speaker, about our former colleague, Harry Harpham.

This Government are committed to increasing home ownership. More than 130,000 households have purchased a home through Help to Buy since 2012. We have just launched London Help to Buy, and I can tell the House that in the first seven days, 15,000 people have registered to take advantage of it. Since April 2010, more than 53,000 homes have been sold to tenants under Right to Buy, and a voluntary Right to Buy scheme will give 1.3 million more families the opportunity to do so.

[Christopher Pincher]

Bovis Homes, a major employer in my constituency, commends Help to Buy as a tremendous initiative, but we all know that we need more small-scale developers in the supply chain to increase the supply of homes to which Help to Buy can apply. Does my right hon. Friend agree that large-scale developers franchising some of their plots to small and medium-sized developers is one way of getting those small-scale developers into the supply chain?

[Greg Clark]

I do agree with my hon. Friend. One of the effects of the financial crash was that many small builders left the industry, and we need to get them back and involved. My hon. Friend has a good idea. The direct commissioning scheme that we have announced, whereby we can carve up public sector land into small plots so that small builders can take advantage of it, will be a big step forward, too.