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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an estimate of the reduction in the level of revenue accruing to the public purse from an inability to recoup Help to Buy equity loans on leasehold houses due to those properties being (a) unsalable and (b) salelable only at a reduction on the initial purchase price; and if he will make a statement.

As the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme is an equity share scheme, the level of revenue recouped to the Government is affected by changes to the housing market. We monitor this financial exposure carefully.

The Government has committed to banning new leasehold houses and is clear that onerous lease terms have no place in a modern housing market. No funding from the new Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme from April 2021 will support the build and sale of leasehold houses.

There has already been a sharp decrease in leasehold houses sold through the current scheme, which now represent just 4.4 per cent of houses built under the scheme for the third quarter of 2018.