Pamela Nash
Main Page: Pamela Nash (Labour - Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke)Department Debates - View all Pamela Nash's debates with the Scotland Office
(13 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberI thank my hon. Friend for her question. It gives me the opportunity not only to praise Edward Lister, who has done a fantastic job over many years, but to pay tribute to Sir Simon Milton, who occupied that position and is admired on all sides of the House for the work he did at Westminster and then at the Mayor’s office. What Wandsworth has shown over many years is that it is possible to combine low taxes with good services if all the time you are trying to improve efficiencies. That is what councils up and down our country should be focused on, particularly in a year when we have to make spending reductions.
One of Scottish Labour’s key manifesto commitments is the First Foot initiative, which will help thousands of first-time buyers to get a foot on the property ladder. What is this Prime Minister doing to help this generation of home buyers, who are crippled by unemployment, student debt and rising living costs, and therefore cannot save a deposit for a House?
The proposal in Scotland sounds quite like our proposal in the Budget for Firstbuy, which will help tens of thousands of young people to get on the property ladder by helping them with the deposit that many families find it extremely difficult to raise. There is a real worry in our country that the age of the first-time buyer is getting older and older, and that many families are finding that unless they have family help behind them they simply cannot get on the housing ladder. We must ensure that that is not the case and Firstbuy is a very good proposal that we are introducing in England. I will be interested to see what happens in Scotland.