The Prime Minister said this figure represented an “upper-limit” of the initiative, which will see homes sold at a 20% discount, while he claimed that the government is aiming for homes that cost between £150,000 and £200,000 in the capital.
Last month the charity Shelter concluded that affordable homes in London under the scheme would only be available to the richest 4% in London who earned more than £76,957 per year.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn asked: “Does the Prime Minister believe that £450,000 as actually an affordable price for a new home for somebody on an average income to try and aspire to?”
Cameron said: “What we are saying is that should be upper limit for a starter home in London; we want to see starter homes in London built at £150,000, at £200,000 so that people… can stop renting and start buying."
Corbyn also attacked the right to buy policy, as he accused the Tories of having a “growing obsession” with “selling off publicly owned properties rather than building homes for the people who desperately need them”.
Cameron responded by saying: “Now that the housing association movement is backing the right to buy that will mean that money going back into building more homes.
“If we want to build homes we need a strong and stable economy. We’re not going to have a strong stable economy if we adopt the New Labour policy which is borrowing money forever."
Last month Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Starter homes costing up to £450,000 will be built at the expense of the genuinely affordable homes this country desperately needs.
“These starter homes will too often only be affordable for higher earners, not the millions of people working hard for an average wage who will be left stuck in expensive private renting.
“There's nothing wrong with helping people on to the property ladder, but the government has to invest in genuinely affordable homes to buy and rent for all of those on ordinary incomes who are bearing the brunt of this crisis."
