Help to Buy Scheme: Coronavirus

(asked on 18th January 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the Help to Buy Scheme in response to delays in construction during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Christopher Pincher Portrait
Christopher Pincher
This question was answered on 25th January 2021

Each year the Help to Buy scheme requires new homes to be built out by 31 December and legally complete by the end of the financial year (31 March). This is a contractual requirement that developers are obliged to meet and to only take reservations on that basis.

Following the initial effects of Covid-19 with the hiatus to construction during the first national lockdown, we announced changes to the contractual deadlines on 31 July, which provided developers using Help to Buy an extra two months’ build time. This meant they had until 28 February 2021 to build out properties with the deadline for legal completion remaining at 31 March 2021. Additionally, where reservations were agreed before 30 June 2020, they were granted some further flexibility allowing such reservations to practically complete by 30 April and legally complete by 31 May 2021.

Working in line with sector guidance, the construction industry has been allowed to continue during the subsequent Covid-19 restrictions. Reservations for the current scheme were closed on 15 December, providing builders sufficient time to complete their orders.

Meanwhile, to mitigate against the risk of outstanding reservations not completing in time, Homes England announced on 15 January that it will not enforce the practical completion deadline of 28 February 2021 for the current scheme, thereby maximising the remaining time available time for developers to build out.

These measures provide relief for developers to build out homes delayed by Covid-19. We nevertheless continue to monitor the situation closely.

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