Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:57 pm on 1 November 2016.
Thank you for those very brief questions. HMOs: I have not ruled out anything in terms of the opportunity to bring more stock back to the market. The opportunity is to ensure that we get best value for money and best value for our clients. So, the deal with HMOs, or the transferral from HMOs into housing associations, is something we could indeed talk about, but it has to be of value to us—to Government and to the public purse. In terms of Help to Buy, the issue with Help to Buy is not a problem with demand. The problem with Help to Buy is managing the fiscal responsibility around that, because, actually, we could open that pot. I think a previous Member who sat on your benches used to ask me on a regular basis if we could use Help to Buy on not new homes. It was a fiscal issue about managing the budgets that we have available for this scheme, and at the moment they are well subscribed—the Help to Buy situation—in terms of what we’re delivering already. So, we don’t think we need any more schemes to add to that to be able to spend the money on Help to Buy as it stands.