Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment have they made of the comments of Peter Redfern, Chief Executive of Taylor Wimpey, about the Help to Buy Scheme.
Help to Buy: Equity Loan transactions are now around a third of new-build sales, yet they remain a small proportion of overall housing sales (less than 4%), so the scheme is unlikely to have a significant effect on house prices more generally.
The latest independent evaluation of Help to Buy: Equity Loan (of 2015-17) found no evidence of a significant impact on prices overall.
Since the launch of Help to Buy Equity Loan in April 2013, private housing starts are up by 52%.
Help to Buy: Equity Loan has helped over 210,000 households buy a new-build home from its launch in spring 2013 until December 2018. All homes have been new–build, and 81% of sales have been to first-time buyers.