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Written question asked by Ruth Cadbury (Labour) on Thursday, 6 July 2023, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 13 July 2023 (named day). It was answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative) on Thursday, 13 July 2023 on behalf of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Help to Buy Scheme

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps she has taken to decrease the waiting time for individuals contacting Lenvi regarding Help to Buy Equity Loans.

Answer

The contract with Lenvi was awarded following a rigorous procurement process. It is a concession contract, so the equity loan administrator's costs are met through fees charged to customers with an equity loan.

Homes England established a project team to manage the process, with a programme of testing before migration of customer data and the service launching on 19 June. Following the migration and launch, the service has been subject to high volumes of customer calls and emails, and this has led to delays for some customers. We are working to address this.

Several steps have been taken in response. This includes increasing staff working hours, ensuring urgent cases are prioritised and escalated, encouraging customers to use email instead of phoning wherever possible and targeted communications channels to keep customers informed.

The department receives daily updates and regularly monitors the service recovery plan and a number of actions have been taken to improve the service.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
192863
Session
2022-23
Related items
Help to Buy Scheme
Monday, 25 September 2023
Written questions
House of Commons
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Lenvi Standards Help to buy scheme
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk