Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his policy is in the event that a developer cannot find sufficient purchasers to satisfy the First Homes policy.

We do not anticipate a lack of demand for First Homes - we are already receiving a very high level of interest in these homes since the launch of the first site in Bolsover, Derbyshire on 4 June.

However, our guidance for First Homes, published alongside the written ministerial statement on 24 May 2021, recommends that if a home remains unsold after a total of 6 months of marketing, despite making every reasonable effort to ensure the home is sold to a suitable person, the developer should be able to release the home onto the open market and pay the local authority a percentage of the sale price equal to the proposed percentage discount. This will ensure that home do not remain unsold long term, whilst also ensuring developers still make the contributions required of them under the conditions of their planning permission.