Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mel Stride and Stephen Metcalfe

Tuesday 22nd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)]

9. What steps he is taking to support first-time home-buyers throughout the UK.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mel Stride)]

In the last Budget we abolished stamp duty for first-time buyers for the first £300,000 of a property’s value up to £500,000 in total. That has meant that 95% of first-time buyers have paid less stamp duty and a full 80% of first-time buyers have paid no stamp duty at all.

[Stephen Metcalfe]

Last November the Chancellor announced an ambitious package to tackle the broken housing market. How many first-time buyers have benefited from that package, particularly in Essex, and where can people find further information about this so we can make hopefully impressive numbers even greater?

[Mel Stride]

Some 69,000 individuals have already benefited from this vital tax relief and over 1 million will do so over the coming five years. We do not have disaggregated data specifically for Essex, but I can tell my hon. Friend that within the south-east 12,900 individuals have benefited from first-time buyer tax relief.