Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to help ensure that help to buy homeowners are advised accurately by Homes England on retaining their exiting mortgage when they are going through divorce and have the means to pay.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
It is not the role of Homes England to offer financial advice to Help to Buy: Equity Loan customers. Customers are advised to consider seeking independent advice before making any financial decisions. I have asked Departmental officials to reach out to my Hon Friend to discuss this further.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
What plans he has to help first-time buyers to purchase their own homes.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
This Government will reset our national homeownership offer – ensuring local people and key workers have the opportunity to build a life in their own community.
First Homes, our new homeownership programme, will discount homes by at least 30 per cent for key workers, local people, and first-time buyers – including those who have done so much to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak. We recently closed our consultation on First Homes and will publish our response soon.
At the same time our new £12 billion investment in affordable homes will create thousands of new homes for Shared Ownership.
And all of this adds to other Government-backed schemes, including Help to Buy, which have supported over 627,000 households into homeownership since 2010.