In an exchange at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions Charlie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover, asked the Prime Minister to comment on figures released by the Council of Mortgage which had shown the number of first-time buyers at a five-year high.
Cameron responded: “This [lack of first-time buyers] has been a problem that has dogged our economy over the last few years.
“No-one wants us to go back to 110% mortgages that we had during the boom times but we do need to make available to young people the chance of both earning a decent salary to be able to buy a decent flat or a decent house with a mortgage that doesn’t require a massive deposit.”
The Prime Minister went on to say that the Funding for Lending Scheme, which the government launched in association with the Bank last summer, had provided a boost to the mortgage market.
“That hasn’t been possible for people in recent years and I think the bank of England move on the Funding for Lending Scheme of £80bn is now really feeding through to the mortgage market and making available lower mortgages at a decent long-term rate, and that is very important for our market.”
