HomeBuy Schemes

Mr. Betts
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans there are to expand the HomeBuy schemes.

Yvette Cooper
[holding answer 25 April 2007]: We are committed to helping 120,000 households into low cost home ownership between 2005 and 2010, an increase of 20,000 on our previous target.

The Government’s HomeBuy programme is made up of 3 schemes: New Build HomeBuy, Social HomeBuy and Open Market HomeBuy. Social and Open Market HomeBuy are both pilots which will run to March 2008. Along with New Build HomeBuy, we are planning to continue both schemes into 2008-11 and will be developing them further, building on experience of the pilots.

On 21 March the Government announced the launch of a Competition later this year for new and existing lenders to join in a 2008-11 round of expanded Open Market HomeBuy. The Government will be looking for products which offer competitive terms and value for money as well as new and innovative mechanisms to widen the availability of shared equity products.