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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support first-time buyers on low to middle incomes who are unable to afford a deposit whilst paying rent on a home.

Government-backed schemes including Help to Buy - Equity Loan, Help to Buy ISA and Lifetime ISA have helped over 500,000 households into home-ownership since 2010. The Autumn Budget 2018 provided an additional £7.2 billion for a new Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme to run from April 2021 to March 2023, which will exclusively help first time buyers. In addition to this the Stamp Duty relief for first time buyers introduced at the Autumn Budget 2017 will help over one million households over the next 5 years.