Today I stood with the SNP’s team of candidates for Glasgow to launch our manifesto for this great city. We have 56 candidates from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. We all share the passion and commitment of the people who live here for making our city the best we know it can be.
The government has now supported more than one million people through its Help to Buy schemes, including 868,240 who have opened Help to Buy: ISAs offering government bonuses of up to £3000 for those buying their first home.
Help to Buy statistics released today (Thursday 30 March) show that:
Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer said:
This government is committed to helping working people get on the housing ladder. Our Help to Buy schemes are proving hugely popular across the country. More than a million people are now using them to help achieve home ownership, particularly first time buyers.
Gavin Barwell, Housing and Planning Minister, said:
As our Housing White Paper sets out, we’re committed to helping more people find a home of their own with the support of a range of low-cost home ownership products.
Our Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme continues to make home ownership a reality for thousands of people, especially first time buyers right across the country.
Home Builders Federation Executive Chairman Stewart Baseley said:
Help to buy is absolutely central to the big increases in housing supply we have seen over the past few years.
Helping people who otherwise would not be able to purchase a home provides the confidence builders need to invest in recruiting and training new staff to ramp up production and bring forward new sites.
More than 112,000 completions have now taken place through the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme, which offers buyers up to 20% of a newly built home’s costs and 40% in London so they only need to provide a 5% deposit.
The North West, Yorkshire and The Humber, and the South West have seen the highest number of property completions using the Help to Buy: ISA. In total, 45,098 completions have taken place across the UK using the ISA bonus have taken place since launch in December 2015.
2,381 buyers in the capital across 31 boroughs also benefited from the London Help to Buy scheme between 1 February 2016 and to 31 December 2016.
The Government provides support via three schemes:
The Help to Buy: ISA is specifically for first-time buyers. For every £200 you save, the government will provide a bonus of £50. The maximum bonus you can receive on completion of a property purchase is £3,000.
The Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme offers buyers up to 20% of the cost of a new build home so they only need to provide a 5% deposit. It is open to both first-time buyers and those looking to step up the housing ladder.
The London Help to Buy scheme provides an equity loan of up to 40% for buyers in the capital with a 5% deposit. It is open to both first time buyers and those looking to step up the housing ladder.
Speaking at today’s Marine Energy Wales conference in Swansea, Economy Secretary Ken Skates said £324,000 of EU and Welsh Government funding has been approved for a technical and commercial feasibility study – a vital next step for developing the zone.
The news comes just a week after the £1.3b Swansea Bay City Region deal was signed which includes a £76m project to establish a marine energy centre around the Port of Milford Haven for marine energy development, fabrication, testing and deployment.
Leased from the Crown Estate, the South Pembrokeshire Demonstration Zone will enable technology developers to deploy and test multi-device arrays of wave energy converters, to generate up to 100MW of green electricity from the sea and act as a catalyst in the establishment of a centre for marine energy production in Wales.
The two phased study will be led by Wave Hub Ltd who are managing the site. The Zone, one of two in Wales, covers 90 sq km area of seabed located between 13-21 kms off the South Pembrokeshire coast near the Milford Haven Waterway.
Ken Skates said:
“The marine sector presents a very real and exciting opportunity for the Welsh economy and developers from around the world are showing an active interest in developing projects in Welsh waters. They recognise that Wales has one of the best marine energy resources and support structures to be found anywhere and the demonstrator zones will play a key role in attracting development and investment.
“The funding boost announced today also coincides with the latest report on the sector in Wales that has seen direct investment in marine energy in Wales increase from £45.5m in 2015 to £68.3m in 2017.
“To date €100m of EU funding has been secured to develop marine energy in Wales and increase the number of wave and tidal energy devices being tested in Welsh waters.
“This growing sector is already supporting supply chain diversity, creating low carbon jobs closer to home and playing a key role in creating sustainable regional economies in Pembrokeshire and Anglesey that are based on developing their own prioritised and specialised sectors.”
He told delegates that Wales’ profile as a location for marine energy has increased dramatically in recent years with Marine Energy Wales hosting visits to the Port of Milford Haven from world leading marine energy companies from the USA, Singapore, Australia, Sweden, Holland, Ireland, Italy and Scotland.
He concluded by saying that supporting the development of more renewable energy projects, including tidal lagoons, is a Welsh Government priority.
Energy Trends and Energy Prices publications are published today 30 March 2017 by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The publications cover new data for the fourth quarter of 2016.
Energy Trends covers statistics on energy production and consumption, in total and by fuel, and provides an analysis of the year on year changes. Energy Prices covers prices to domestic and industrial consumers, prices of oil products and comparisons of international fuel prices.
The growth duty, which came into statutory effect on 29 March 2017 under the Deregulation Act 2015, requires regulators to have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth, alongside protecting the public.
It applies to most national regulators but not local authorities or fire and rescue authorities. The growth duty statutory guidance clarifies how regulators can work in accordance with the growth duty.
The guidance will help regulators fulfil their new responsibilities, including the proper consideration before allocating resources, setting enforcement policies and making sanctioning decisions.
Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility Margot James said:
I believe that the growth duty will encourage regulators to develop more mature and productive relationships with those sectors and businesses that they regulate, driving up the accountability of regulators to the business community.
And we are asking regulators to consider how legislation and enforcement frameworks could adapt to emerging technologies and innovative business models. Our expectation is that this will help to deliver our aspirations for greater productivity and growth in our economy.
The regulators and regulatory functions to which the growth duty applies are specified in the Economic Growth (Regulatory Functions) Order 2017.
The Deregulation Act 2015 was extended by the Enterprise Act 2016, requiring regulators to formally report on the effect that the growth duty has on the way they exercise their regulatory functions and the impacts of this on business. However, this additional obligation is not yet in force, and BEIS will engage with regulators before it is introduced.