Mortgage Market

Miriam Cates Excerpts

Tuesday 13th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffith]

I can give the hon. Lady the reassurance that the wellbeing of the nation’s mortgage holders, savers, pensioners and investors is the whole of my focus, as it is of all of my colleagues on the Treasury Bench. As Members on both side of the House will know, it is a feature of the UK mortgage market that from time to time mortgage deals are withdrawn from the market and repriced. As of now, there are more than 5,000 mortgage offers from different suppliers, at different tenures, in the market. It remains my focus to ensure that those who seek to buy a first home or to remortgage their home have the most competitive offers available.

[Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Con)]

One of the biggest challenges facing our country is the inability of young people to afford to buy a home because of inflated house prices. Although recent interest rate rises have compounded the problem, is not the real problem that interest rates were far too low for far too long, turning savers away from saving and into property investment instead, and thus pushing up the price of property as an asset? Does my hon. Friend agree that this is not an easy problem to solve, but that one possible answer would be for local authorities to build homes that can be bought at a reduced rate, not by investors, but by local young people?

[Andrew Griffith]

I thank my hon. Friend who does a wonderful job of advocacy for her constituents, including those who seek to buy their first home. This Government, through a variety of measures to support householders in general, have helped more than 800,000 people, of all types, to purchase a property since 2010. That represents a city of approximately the size of Liverpool, such is the scale of the endeavours. It is of course important that we get the nation building, and part of that is about providing the economic stability whereby people are willing to make investments for the longer term.