Building Britain’s Future: Another decade of Labour?
There’s a section at the back of the Building Britain’s Future document where Labour spells out key “deliverables” for the next decade. Some of these are indeed likely. Others less so. Alex and I have...
View ArticleThis time Frank Field may be wrong
The Times has splashed this morning on criticism of the government over its imminent alteration to the housing benefit system (which was in the April Budget) which will save £140m a year.* Frank Field...
View ArticleHomeowner Mortgage Support Scheme has helped……15 people
I’m not officially working today (am at home, in recovery from gastric flu). But I’ve just been passed something so fascinating I couldn’t help passing it on. You may not remember but something called...
View ArticleWhy John Healey was right about repossessions
When it comes to an Englishman’s home it seems there are certain things you can’t say. John Healey, housing minister, found this out to his cost yesterday when he explained that – for some people –...
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Darling’s “Mansion Tax”
As I predicted this morning, the stamp duty holiday for first time buyers up to £250,000 has come with a major “sting” – an increase on the levy for people exchanging £1m-plus homes.Continue reading »
View ArticleIs the business world falling out of love with the coalition?
In the run-up to the general election George Osborne scored a big propaganda coup by enlisting the names of scores of business leaders in a letter criticising Gordon Brown’s planned rise in National...
View ArticleWill the spending review mean the axeing of 270,000 new affordable homes?
The National Housing Federation – which represents housing associations – will warn today that plans to build 270,000 affordable homes for low income families over the next decade could be axed as a...
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Will there be enough affordable homes?
Grant Shapps, the housing minister, announced on Thursday that social housing providers will build 170,000 new affordable homes over the next four years, 20,000 more than expected and a lot more than...
View ArticleDoes Cameron’s promise on new homes and jobs add up?
In a piece for tomorrow’s FT, I describe today’s two housing announcements – and their promise of 200,000 new homes and 400,000 new jobs – as “optimistic, verging on the far-fetched”. But as one...
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Live: Osborne’s Autumn Statement
Welcome to our rolling coverage of the Autumn Statement. George Osborne has missed his fiscal targets and cut corporation tax. We’ll bring you all the day’s developments live. By Tom Burgis and Ben...
View ArticleWhy it may be impossible to spend billions on new social housing
Alistair Darling promised about £1.5bn today on “thousands of new and modernised social homes as well as regeneration projects.” The money may soon be there. Spending it is easier said than done,...
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Where did the 75,000 repo figure come from?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders has just distanced itself from the 75k figure which has rapidly taken hold in the media. It is a totemic number, as it is almost exactly the peak of the last recession:...
View ArticleThe 3m homes target: Ministers are “like Hitler in the bunker”
Still waiting for Margaret Beckett, housing minister, to drop the ludicrous target of 3m new homes by 2020. The policy was always based on false assumptions and is now impossible to achieve because of...
View ArticleNew details (but not many) of the “Mortgage Support Scheme”
The Treasury has just put out details of how its new anti-repossession scheme will work. (The one in which, if you lose your job, the bank will defer part of your interest payments for up to two...
View ArticleWould the CML like to explain itself?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders firmly denied reports from the BBC a fortnight ago that its 2009 forecast for repossessions would be 75,000. The CML’s spokeswoman said on the record that this was the...
View ArticleBalls admits that there was a housing bubble
It’s taken months and years for anyone in Labour to admit that the government’s housing policy has been based on false assumptions. Time after time, ministers claimed that there was a desperate...
View Article“The domestic UK banks are technically insolvent….”
This blog asked yesterday morning whether Gordon Brown really meant what he said when he demanded that banks should quantify all of their toxic loans. A research note put out on Friday by analysts – at...
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Gordon Brown and his enthusiasm for a 100 per cent mortgage
The prime minister won favourable coverage over the weekend for his claim that he would abolish 100 per cent mortgages.Read more
View ArticleRIP Ecotowns
Labour love to talk about the environment and housing – and the ecotown project combines both in a single grandiose project. Even now, with the property industry in meltdown, no minister will admit...
View ArticleDog whistle politics: British homes for British workers
We are about to see the full details of Labour’s new policy of giving priority on council housing waiting lists to local residents. This is an obvious dog whistle to working class voters who might...
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