Alexander defends Help to Buy scheme

Lib Dem Mr Alexander told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, hosted by Eddie Mair, the Government wanted to help those people who could not afford to get on the housing market ladder because of the lack of a deposit.

He said: “There are two parts to the Help to Buy scheme of course, there’s the shared equity scheme which is about promoting new build properties, trying to get the construction industry, which is one of the bits of our economy that’s been hardest hit by the crisis, going again creating jobs and building homes.

“And there’s part of it which is about supporting mortgages. We’ve been perfectly clear that the intention of this policy is to help those people who want to buy a home for themselves or family members to live in, but where the current rules about mortgages and deposits don’t allow them to do that.”

Responding to accusations from Mr Mair that the announcement of the new scheme unveiled in last week’s Budget was a “bog standard shambles”, Mr Alexander maintained it was a “rational, 
prudent, sensible way” to go about designing the detail of a policy .

vention in an important part of the economy”.