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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the implications for (a) his policies on and (b) Government funding for help to buy of the level of the bonus awarded by Persimmons to its Chief Executive in December 2017; and if he will make a statement.

Under this Government, new house building starts and first time buyers are at their highest levels for nine years. The annual number of new homes started has doubled from the level Labour left behind and there are 120,000 more First Time Buyers a year. The Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme has played an important role by helping 134,000 households buy their own home since 2013 and approximately 80 per cent of these were first time buyers. The scheme does not provide a subsidy to house builders but offers a repayable loan to buyers of new homes.

In 2016 Help to Buy sales made up only 3 per cent of total house sales and an independent evaluation found no evidence to suggest the scheme has driven up house prices. We want to see builders investing in growing supply and have committed to work with the sector to consider the future of the scheme beyond 2021.