Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2021 to Question 28292, whether his Department made an assessment of changes to average house prices when reviewing the Help to Buy ISA price cap for eligible properties.

The Help to Buy: ISA scheme aims to help those struggling to save enough to get onto the housing ladder and includes a property price cap of £250,000 anywhere in the UK and a higher property value cap of £450,000 for properties in London.

The Government believes that this price cap is appropriate to focus our support on those that need it most, with the aim of providing support to the majority of first-time buyers across the UK.

The Government’s ambition is to provide the opportunity for first-time buyers to enter the market and has a number of policies in place to support this. In designing the Help to Buy: ISA scheme the Government had to balance the need to control public expenditure with helping those most in need of assistance, and keeps all aspects of savings policy under review.