The government has quietly deleted a "nonsense" tweet that suggested a person on a £30,000 salary could buy a London house.
In a tweet The Treasury had claimed a first time buyer in London moving into a terraced house will save £11,250 on stamp duty & £1,050 on the household's energy bills.
“To make that stamp duty saving you'd need to be buying a £500,000+ property.
“With 10% deposit, cheapest fix mortgage would cost £2,400/mth (£28,000/yr). How can someone on £30k afford that?
“I am asking the treasury to remove. PS of course they'd never get the mortgage in the first place.”
Image:
Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)The Full Fact website had also criticised the tweet, saying: "The Treasury tweet says that if this hypothetical first-time buyer earns a salary of £30,000 per year, they would save £400 on tax (which presumably refers to National Insurance and income taxes).
"This is accurate... However, it raises the question as to whether someone earning this salary could afford to buy a house worth £543,500.
"Credit reference agency Experian says that lenders typically offer borrowers between four and five times their salary as a mortgage, meaning someone on £30,000 could expect to borrow up to around £150,000.
"This suggests that someone earning £30,000 would need to either have a very large deposit, get a much higher loan than is normal or be buying as part of a group or couple in order to afford to buy a £543,500 house—or have some other form of help."
The Treasury has since deleted the tweet.
Martin Lewis tweeted after the deletion: "Thanks @hmtreasury for agreeing to delete. It says “While the figures were statistically accurate, we recognise assumptions were made about the typical 1st time buyer profile which weren't reflected. We take responsible messaging v seriously, which is why we've deleted the tweet".
Over the weekend Martin Lewis provided a positive update for households who earn less than £50,000 after Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled a "new growth plan" on Friday.
Part of the "new growth plan" was to cut Stamp Duty, with the nil rate band doubling from £125,000 to £250,000.
This means 200,000 more people every year will be able to buy a home without paying any Stamp Duty at all - and the standard buyer in England will save £2,500, according to Gov.uk.
Mr Lewis said many fans have asked him if they will still get the new rates if they have exchanged homes but not "completed".
In a tweet, he replied: "In general yes, stamp duty is crystallised at completion (though there can be some exceptions - check with your solicitor)."
On Friday experts called on Liz Truss to correct her claims on TV and radio suggesting no families will have to pay more than £2,500 in energy bills every year as the new cap came into force on Saturday.
The Prime Minister repeatedly and incorrectly said no household will pay more than her energy price guarantee over the next year.
But the guarantee is based on how much energy a family uses – and half of all households are likely to face bills of more than £2,500.
Adam Scorer, chief executive of fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, said: “It’s simply not true that bills are capped at £2,500 and it’s vital that people understand that.
“The energy price guarantee is not an all-you-can-heat buffet. If you use more, you will pay more.
“Millions on tight budgets do not fit the ‘average’ tag. They can use more energy than the average because they’ve got medical conditions, larger families or really difficult-to-heat homes. They may face bills much higher than £2,500.”