Housing minister Lucy Frazer has granted an extension to the practical completion deadline for Help to Buy transactions in England by six weeks.
The minister confirmed the extension in a letter to the Home Builders Federation’s (HBF) executive chairman Stewart Baseley on 26 January.
The extension follows HBF’s contact with Homes England and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), alerting them that a small number of plots would struggle to meet the 31 January ‘First Longstop’.
While expressing disappointment that additional forbearance would be required in the small number of cases, the minister has extended the deadline for practical completion to 17 March.
Developers who wish to use the additional forbearance will need to “provide Homes England with details of the plots they require forbearance for, the reasons for the delay as well as the date they expect the plot to complete by”.
Frazer has highlights there will be no consideration of any additional forbearance as it could risk completions achieving legal completion by 31 March.
She says: “I was very clear in my original letter and want to reiterate that there is no leniency on the final legal completion deadline of 31 March 2023.”
“The scheme end date is nonnegotiable and there will be no funds available from HM Treasury to support transactions beyond this financial year.”
“For this reason, homes that do not legally complete by 31 March 2023 will not be able to access the Help to Buy equity loan and I ask for your continued support in communicating this to your members.”