Contribution to Debate on First time buyers
Janet Finch-Saunders
It is a pleasure today to support the Welsh Conservative debate and our group proposals to boost support for first-time buyers. We certainly recognise the need to help first-time buyers onto the property ladder by working with the whole market to develop a broad range of initiatives. This motion reaffirms our position back in November 2013 and our vision for Welsh housing to deal with the housing need crisis here in Wales. Of course, it isn’t new for us to be the party quite rightly championing the right to make homeownership obtainable and affordable for all.
It is increasingly difficult to get onto the property ladder. They do feel isolated and far removed from homeownership. Now, the measures by the Welsh Government to tackle this have, thus far, failed, in the main because of such poor take-up. Homebuy—okay. But Rent First, the take-up is extremely poor. And Help to Buy is still underutilised, and I’m amazed with my colleague, Mike Hedges, across the Chamber there. I have raised in this Chamber about why empty stock cannot be used in this regard. So, it does beg the question whether the Welsh Government has the same aspiration and ambition to see homebuyers into their own houses as they and we have.
Whilst the number of first-time buyers is growing, the challenge is presented—
Mike Hedges
I think that getting these empty properties available is one of the easy ways of increasing the amount of supply. You need to increase supply because, unless you increase supply, all you do is push up prices.
Janet Finch-Saunders
To be honest, I don’t think that really—is worthy of an answer. [Laughter.] The fact it costs significantly more to build a house in Wales than in England is largely due to red tape and regulatory burden imposed by this Welsh Government. Property developers shying away from building here, preferring to build over the border, is a clear indicator of the failure to grasp what is required. Now, by investing in our potential homeowners, you are contributing to our construction industry, improving employment opportunities, whilst stimulating the economy. The current housing need requirement in Wales as per an earlier review identified a need for 14,000 to be built yearly between 2006 and 2026, yet it was highlighted in 2012 that this hasn’t been achieved, and there are now around 43,000 properties still required—the lowest level since the second world war.
Our offer for first-time buyers, on the other hand, is without compromise and seeks to help our homeowners get a leg up on that very first rung of the property ladder. Six-month council tax holiday: this alone is of some significance, especially with the council tax rises that we’ve seen here in Wales under Labour. Cutting your stamp duty bill: scrapping this duty or tax—whatever you want to call it—for first-time buyers on old properties up to the value of £250,000 is a wonderful initiative.
The UK Government has been keen to make it easier to save, with the newly introduced Help to Buy first-time ISA available over four years. This would help to boost savings by 25 per cent. If you then save £12,000, you receive a bonus of £3,000. On the highest bonus reward, this is an amazing initiative. It is called incentive and innovation, and we want that for our first timers also. Wales is a country of aspiration, with 84 per cent of adults wanting to take their keys to their own home, as opposed to 79 per cent across Great Britain. We will work with the whole housing sector to develop a range of initiatives to help first-time buyers onto the property ladder, providing buyers with the financial flexibility to clear away the barriers to homeownership and help them get their keys to their very first homes.
Conservatives believe that aspiration, ambition and achievement are the keys to making many things possible, but we know, too, that encouragement, enablement and empowerment from a Government can make that lock turn. Thank you.