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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing financial assistance to people on shared ownership rents in the context of rising interest rates.

The Government is aware that rising interest rates will increase monthly mortgage payments and rising cost of living will decrease available income. However, all new mortgages since 2014, including those for shared owners, have been subject to rigorous affordability assessment, with interest rate stress test. If shared owners start to miss payments, rules on lender forbearance from 2009 require lenders to work with households to find solutions to avoid repossession and for repossession to be a last resort.

The Government is also aware of the potential for large nominal-terms rent increases for shared owners in 2023-24. Shared Ownership rents are permitted to increase by a maximum of the Retail Price Index (RPI) plus 0.5% per year, using the RPI figure for a specified month. As RPI plus 0.5% is the permitted maximum Shared Ownership rents can increase by, social housing providers have the flexibility to set increases below this level. The Government strongly encourages providers to make use of this flexibility, and we know that many are carefully considering their options in response to cost-of-living concerns.