The shadow housing minister has criticised the government’s lack of action in regard to building new homes.
Emma Reynolds commented that the Help to Buy mortgage scheme was creating higher demand for new-build houses and that the government needed to act quickly.
Ms Reynolds welcomed the news that 6,000 Help to Buy mortgage applications have been made since its inception, but said: “Rising demand for housing must be matched with rising supply if this scheme is to bring the cost of housing within the reach of low and middle-income earners.”
The rate of housebuilding under the coalition government is at its lowest level since the 1920s, according to the shadow housing minister. She also reaffirmed Labour’s promise to be building 200,000 homes annually by 2020.
Help to Buy, the government’s flagship housing policy, requires only a five per cent deposit on a property worth up to £600,000.
David Cameron recently dismissed fears that Help to Buy was fuelling a housing bubble, stating that house prices are still comfortably below the peak they reached in 2007. Some financial analysts are calling for the scheme to be stopped or diluted.
