First mooted by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg over the weekend, the plans, under which parents could use a portion of their pension savings to help their children get on the property ladder, have attracted a volley of criticism from the industry.
However, speaking to the Financial Times, Webb insisted the idea was workable and could be in place by April.
He said the idea was not about early access to pensions and suggested mortgage lenders would be particularly interested in people who are not far away from scheme pension age.
“We looked at that [as an option] and we rejected that in this parliament,” he said.
“This is about an individual who is going to draw a pension at a date in the future, entering into an agreement about the part of the pension which would have been a lump sum, being made over to a mortgage lender.
“Our initial legal assessment is that this does not require any statute changes… but it might involve a conversation with regulators.”
Saga director-general Ros Altmann has already dismissed the idea as ‘half-baked’, while Fundsmith chief executive Terry Smith today branded Clegg as ‘brain dead’ for proposing the policy.
