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 effect of rising house prices on the (a) ability of first-time buyers to get on the property ladder and (b) levels of home ownership among first-time buyers in (i) Coventry North East constituency, (ii) Coventry, (iii) the West Midlands and (iv) England; and what steps his Department is taking to support homeownership among first-time buyers in those areas.

The Government is committed to supporting first-time buyers. Over 717,000 households have been helped to purchase a home since Spring 2010 through Government-backed schemes such as Help to Buy: Equity Loan and Right to Buy. New initiatives including First Homes, the new model of Shared Ownership and the £11.5 billion affordable homes programme will bring more affordable housing to those who need it.

Data on the number of first-time buyers in the West Midlands, the Coventry North East constituency and across Coventry is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-equity-loan-scheme-data-to-31-december-2020.

The English Housing Survey homeownership rates 2019-20 is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey. Data for 2020-21 will be published shortly.