Official Report · Committee

New Petitions

First-time Buyers (Financial Support) (PE1827)

Wednesday 25 November 2020 Public Petitions Committee About 11:30 Petitions 6 contributions · 5 speakers

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The record

6 contributions

Johann Lamont Lab The Convener · Glasgow

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Item 2 is consideration of new petitions. The first new petition is PE1827, on support for first time buyers in areas with higher house inflation. The petition, which was lodged by Chloe Bird, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to increase the help-to-buy threshold to £250,000 and extend the deadline for the first home fund.

Members will recall that the committee agreed to seek views from the Scottish Government on all new petitions in advance, before they are formally considered. Despite repeated requests for the information, however, the Scottish Government has not been forthcoming with its views on the petition.

I found the material on the petition interesting, because there is always a balance to be struck between supporting first-time buyers and recognising the challenges that particular groups face. Many young people are unable to accumulate the capital to put down a deposit, even if they could afford to buy a house. There is a question about why the threshold was reduced in order to ensure that the support was more targeted, but there are also arguments in the other direction.

It is a shame that we have not heard from the Scottish Government on the petition, because work has clearly been done in the area over a long period, but there are questions about the extent to which the intervention supports first-time buyers. Do members have comments or suggestions for action?

Maurice Corry Con West Scotland

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It is an interesting petition and, as you say, convener, the information on it is quite eye-opening. I return to a comment that I made on the previous petition that we considered. We are in very difficult economic times and I think that the matter needs to be looked at again. We must extract some information and views from the Scottish Government. I think that we should write to the Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning to seek his views and ask whether he will take the action that is called for in the petition.

I thank the petitioner for lodging the petition. I am father to young people who are on the threshold and are looking to buy their first home or somehow acquire the money for the deposit by saving it, and I know how jolly difficult it is. I certainly believe that we need to look deeper into the matter and I recommend that we write to the minister in the first instance.

Gail Ross SNP Caithness, Sutherland and Ross

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I found the petition very interesting, too. I was interested to read the information in the paper by the Scottish Parliament information centre about how the help to buy started out and the threshold, how it was brought down, and the fact that we are now looking at affordable homes being the driver.

I agree that we should write to the minister to get the Scottish Government’s views on the petition. I read in the papers that, in England, there is a capped scheme based on different areas. I found that really interesting, because I come from a rural area where houses are infinitely more affordable than they are even in Inverness, but certainly in the bigger cities. A cap of even £200,000 would buy someone a pretty good house up here in Caithness, whereas they would not get as much for their money in the bigger cities, as we have seen. I wonder whether, in our letter, we could ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered doing different things for different areas.

Tom Mason Con North East Scotland

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This is a complicated and difficult area. Like Maurice Corry, I am involved in trying to sort out purchases for my family—for my daughter—and it is very difficult. We need to explore with the Government exactly what is available at present and any possible innovations that could be introduced, because the situation remains difficult.

If local variations could be brought in, as Gail Ross mentioned, that might be suitable. There are great differences between the north-east and the central belt and between rural and urban areas. Those need to be considered and we need to have information on them. We should write to the minister and try to get him to explore the options quite widely and give his views on them.

David Torrance SNP Kirkcaldy

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I fully support my colleagues’ suggestion that we write to the Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning to seek his views.

Johann Lamont Lab The Convener · Glasgow

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I agree that we should write in the terms that members have described.

The point that Gail Ross made is absolutely right. Even within urban areas, there can be huge discrepancies in property values. In some parts of Glasgow, £200,000 would not buy a two-bedroom flat. I am also interested in how the Government thinks about the balance of spending within support for first-time buyers. There is a point about young people not being able to buy a house and therefore renting, which means that they are in effect paying somebody else’s mortgage for them. There are also questions about where else money is spent on housing, such as on affordable housing for rent.

We will welcome the minister’s comments on the issue that the petitioner has flagged up, which is that access to support is not matching the price of properties in some parts of Scotland. We will look forward to a response from the minister in that regard.

In this meeting

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