§ Mr. Joseph Deanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement about the arrangements for lending by local authorities for house purchase.
§ Mr. CroslandLocal authorities generally are free, without overall money limits on total lending, to make loans for house purchase to the specified categories of borrower set out in Circular 67/74 (Welsh Office Circular 108/74). The Government are anxious to increase the sales of houses completed by developers. It is important socially and economically that these houses be brought into use as quickly as possible. The Government have already taken steps to encourage this and have now decided to authorise local authorities as an immediate short-term measure to make mortgages available for first-time purchasers of258W newly built houses from builders or developers where the mortgage transactions may reasonably be expected to be completed by the end of 1974.