London’s deputy mayor says government should consider a ‘new version’ of Help to Buy

June numbers from online estate agent Zoopla showed that house prices rose 1.4% over the past year in England, but agreed sales were down 7% and buyer enquiries were down 15%.

Help to Buy ran from 2013 to 2023, providing interest-free equity loans for buyers of new-build homes. It could reach 40% of the purchase price in London and 20% outside the capital.

However, the House of Lords’ Built Environment Committee, among others, criticised the scheme for inflating house prices.

Mr Copley agreed that Help to Buy “was not without its problems”.

He added: “But I do think that there needs to be some serious consideration to some sort of measures to help people to buy in the current market.

“It’s no secret that private sales are very sluggish at the moment, and there are all sorts of reasons for that, I think not least the fact that people were expecting two interest rate cuts this year, and because of the war in the Middle East that has come to pass, unfortunately.

“I do think there needs to be some thinking about this now.”

Mr Copley acknowledged that it may be easier said than done to design a new version of the policy without negative consequences. However, he added, “there are a lot of people out there that you know do want to buy a home, but just can’t access that market at the moment”.

At the end of June, the government published a consultation on a new First Time Buyer ISA savings product. Allies of Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester who is likely to be the next prime minister, have floated the idea of exempting young people from income tax for their first three years in full-time employment to help them build up a deposit.