Speeches by Hillier.

“It is unlikely to crystallise, you think.”

“That is first-time buyers, yes. Have you analysed it across the rest of the market?”

“On that point, Minister Pennycook, there are some councils, such as Hackney council—my council—that are building council homes, but, as you say, lots of councils do not have architects, departments, the skillset, the direct labour organisation or even the ability to procure. Are you looking at encouraging councils to g…”

“Or a ballpark figure if you cannot give an exact figure. I expect you could write to us—”

“To be clear, the targets will follow the bids—it is about what is possible.”

“Minister Rigby, I want to talk about mortgages. Obviously the FCA has loosened the rules on mortgage lending, and that has made mortgages more accessible. Do you have any indication of how that is having an impact on purchases?”

“What contingent liability is the Treasury carrying on the mortgage guarantee scheme over this Parliament?”

“Under the PSNFL rules and so on that we have talked about on the Treasury Committee, was there, or is there likely to be, any discussion to allow councils to borrow more? Obviously, borrowing is high, and we know there are challenges, but is that a prospect?”

“Finally, in expensive areas, building a social housing unit is very expensive. For example, in Hackney, that means more grant would need to go in, in an area where I have massive overcrowding, with one in two children living in poverty, partly because of the housing situation. That means that the tendency in your Depar…”

“My point is really that people can buy homes with easier mortgages, but does that mean it is actually affordable for them? Thank you for taking that away. I want to touch on the mortgage guarantee scheme. My simple question is: why bother? Given that Santander has a 98% loan-to-value offer and many others have 95% loan…”

“New towns are being planned, so it would be helpful to have a rough timetable for that, but also to know where those new towns are going to be built. That is going to add a lot of volume, but it may not be where people are. My constituents might not be so keen to move to a new town, because it is not local. That may ra…”

“Just to give an example, a perverse outcome of Help to Buy was that, in Stoke-on-Trent, large executive homes were built in an area where people could not afford them, so they were not very useful to the local population. We all know our own areas and what is needed, and I completely get that local authorities have a v…”

“Is it something you might want to take away and think about?”

“I think it is actually very honest not to have an annual target, but there is the challenge that, for every year you are not completing many, you are piling them on towards the end. What metrics are you using? You have net additional completions. Are there any other metrics about tenure, location or geography? You can …”

“It is always an ambitious thing to put things towards the end of a Parliament.”

“That wasn’t quite my question. It was about people who are borrowing now, on their income, over a 37 or 40-year period and so will still have those extant mortgages, potentially, into retirement. Is the Treasury looking at that, Ms Rigby, in terms of the support that the state should be providing? This is not just abou…”

“Minister Pennycook, you said earlier that we could measure you by net additional completions, and you said there would be no annual target. That is a sensible approach, but when will we see a volume of homes built? When do you expect to see net and additional completions go up? I do not mean small bits this year. When …”

“Okay. Finally, a quick one on marriage value. We talked about affordable housing products. Once a lease gets too low, it is very expensive for people. They are losing value. It is expensive. They can’t sell. How do you intend to make sure that that is resolved? That is the feudal system kicking in, isn’t it?”

“Is there any analysis in the Treasury of the long-term public policy impact of the fact that people will be indebted longer and sometimes, if they are buying only in their 30s, well into retirement? Is the Treasury looking at that to make sure that we are guarding against any unintended consequences in the future?”

“In the House, you said you would come back to us on this issue of shared owners who are leaseholders. There will be challenges for them because there will be two owners to their property, basically, because they are paying rent on part of it. Will they be able to embrace commonhold?”