07:25 Monday 24th June 2013
Bigger Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
PAUL STAINTON: For decades, when it comes to housing, politicians have only provided short-term fixes, according to our country’s chartered surveyors. They say the UK is at risk of creating another house price problem, (and) that the Government should be aiming to build twice the number of houses than it’s currently aiming for. But is that going to happen? Sean Farrington is from our business unit. Morning Sean.
SEAN FARRINGTON: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: We’d all like more houses built, I think. Every council in Cambridgeshire would like to build more houses, but there ain’t the money around.
SEAN FARRINGTON: Well you say we’d all like more houses, but of course if there was all of a sudden a plethora of new houses all across the country, that would mean house prices probably wouldn’t go up as quickly as they might already. And it’s a question that everybody really has to answer themselves. Do you want to see house prices going up? If you own one, do you like the idea of it, but if that means your child can’t afford one, or you’re in the market for one, you don’t really want to see them going up any more. And actually what the chartered surveyors say is that Government policy over decades now has been based around people owning homes. That has helped push prices up. And that is not a healthy way to have a housing market strategy.
PAUL STAINTON: The Government’s announced several housing schemes, part-buy, part-this, part-that. They’re sort of working, aren’t they, in the short term? Continue reading “This Blessed Plot”