Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many first-time buyers have (a) bought properties in Worcester and (b) been helped by the help-to-buy scheme to purchase properties in each of the last five years.

This Government is committed to supporting people’s aspirations to own their own home.

The Department does not collate statistics on the total number of first-time buyers at local authority level.

The Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme has been running for 17 months. The Department’s official statistics on sales for the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme, to 31 August 2014, broken down by local authority for England, are available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/help-to-buy-equity-loan-scheme-monthly-statistics. In Worcester, the number of families buying a home with the support of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme, as of 31 August 2014, was 79, of which 59 (75 per cent) were bought by first-time buyers.

The Government does not collect statistics for first-time buyers under Help to Buy: NewBuy. The latest official statistics, to 30 June 2014, are available at: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/338725/20140731_Help_to_Buy_Equity_Loan_and_Help_to_Buy_NewBuy_statistical_release.pdf. There have been 7 sales in Worcester local authority until that point.

The Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee scheme is managed by HM Treasury and has been running for 12 months. Figures are currently available only for sales during the first nine months of the scheme, to 30 June 2014. There have been 39 sales in Worcester local authority until that point. The latest data is available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-mortgage-guarantee-scheme-quarterly-statistics-october-2013-to-june-2014. This includes total numbers of sales at individual local authority level (Table 7) and UK-wide figures for the number of first-time buyers (Table 6).