Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of mortgage lending practices for buy-to-let properties on housing affordability for owner-occupiers.

The Government is committed to making the aspiration of home ownership a reality for as many households as possible. To improve housing affordability and help people into homeownership, we continue to take steps to increase the supply of housing. In December 2024, we announced major changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility to deliver 170,000 additional homes and add £6.8 billion to the economy by 2029-30, and have since published a more comprehensive rewrite to make planning policy clearer, more streamlined and pro-growth.

The Government recognises that activity in the buy-to-let market can affect the balance between different housing tenures. Buy-to-let lending practices are commercial matters for individual lenders, in which the Government does not intervene. However, the Government is regularly in contact with mortgage lenders on all aspects of their business, including developments in buy-to-let and owner-occupier lending and their implications for the wider housing market.