Housing - getting the market moving

The National Housing Federation, which represents Housebuilders, has expressed concern about the rate at which new homes are being built.

 

This is an issue: Britain does need more homes.

 

The housing market which the present coalition government inherited from Labour in 2010 had house building at its lowest peacetime levels since the 1920s.

 

Three years later rents are falling in real terms, 360,000 homes have been built, and house building is growing at its fastest rates for 10 years. And the government's strategy to reduce the deficit has kept interest rates, and therefore mortgage rates, lower than they would otherwise have been. A rise of 1 per cent in interest rates would see typical mortgage bills rise by £1,000 a year, and adding that blow to the burdens which many hardworking families are facing at that time would not be a good idea. Yet another reason Britain cannot afford to let Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, whose policy of borrwing more would drive up market interest rates and therefore mortgages, anywhere near Downing Street.

 

We want to see an economy and housing market built on stability that works for all hardworking people and which encourages higher standards and investment.