The new Economic Secretary to the Treasury, known as City minister, Lucy Rigby, will summon senior executives from the UK’s biggest banks and building societies to a Treasury meeting on Wednesday. Housing minister Matthew Pennycook will join the talks, with the aim of urging lenders to take up looser lending rules to help first-time buyers access a home.

Ms Rigby, who replaced Emma Reynolds after the latter was moved to Environment Secretary in a cabinet reshuffle, inherits financial services policy and regulation responsibilities as City minister. The reshuffle followed Labour’s Angela Rayner resigning as housing secretary amid scrutiny of her tax affairs. The Leeds reforms package announced in July aims to expand mortgage options, including rules that would allow lenders to offer mortgages at up to 4.5 times a buyer’s income. Labour says the changes could generate up to 36,000 additional loans to first-time buyers in the first year. A review of Financial Conduct Authority lending rules could also enable a prospective buyer’s rent-paying history to be used to demonstrate affordability.

Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, NatWest, Nationwide Building Society and UK Finance are set to attend. Rigby said she was “bringing lenders together to make mortgages more accessible and to highlight new options for first-time buyers”.