Oral Answers to Questions

Guto Bebb Excerpts

Monday 4th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Stunell]

I remind my hon. Friend that “The Plan for Growth” published last week by my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Chancellor set out plans for the release of more public land, and this Department is very strongly engaged in making sure that that leads to more housing.

[Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) (Con)]

7. What steps his Department is taking to support home ownership and first-time buyers.

[Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD)]

15. What steps his Department is taking to support home ownership and first-time buyers.

[The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)]

At the Budget, we announced the Firstbuy scheme, which will be co-funded by the Government and house builders, bring £500 million of investment into the sector and build about 15,000 homes throughout the UK. In England, those figures are £200 million and 10,000. In addition, the Government’s commitment to reducing debt is perhaps the most important thing that we can do to create stability, and recently I held a first-time buyers summit to pull together the sector and ensure that progress is made.

[Guto Bebb]

I thank the Minister for his response. Does he agree that the new funding for the Firstbuy scheme will help the construction industry, creating new jobs and increasing the pace of economic growth?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is absolutely spot on, of course, and the scheme will do both those things. The critical difference between it and the schemes that the previous Government ran is that the person purchasing the house has to provide a deposit. In addition, the amount of money going in from the Government will be reduced to make it much better value for money.