Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Pawsey Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd July 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The cancer drugs fund has been a huge breakthrough not just in making available drugs but some important treatments, too. I hope that other parts of the United Kingdom will take up what we are doing with the cancer drugs fund. Another thing we can do is to make sure, by working with Genomics England, that we are sequencing genomes as fast as we can so that we can carry out the research necessary to see which cancer drugs will be effective on which patients in accordance with their DNA. This will be the modern way to do tailored medicine, and I am very pleased to say that Britain is well ahead of the pack when it comes to investing in our universities and science base as well as in our NHS.

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

Q13. Jack Gayton and Hannah Fountaine are two young constituents who now own one of the 108 properties in Rugby bought as a result of this Government’s Help to Buy scheme. Does the Prime Minister agree that the fact that Jack and Hannah now enjoy their own home and have made a start on the housing ladder demonstrates this Government’s support for those who want to work hard and get on?

[The Prime Minister]

I join my hon. Friend in congratulating his constituents. The Help to Buy scheme is working to get people on to the housing ladder. It is enabling people who do not have rich parents, and who cannot afford a big deposit but can afford a mortgage, to go out and buy the flat or house that they want. We have seen 30,000 people taking advantage of the scheme already, and it has also helped to kick-start investment in housing and raise the level of housing starts in our country.