Politicians talk housing, but…..

It’s great that the politicians are talking about housing and have woken up to it being a key issue for the General Election.

But are they getting their policies right?

The Conservatives have decided to sell off houses they don’t own, offering the “right to buy” on homes owned by Housing Associations. If they get into a position to implement this policy it will be interesting to see if they can deliver – since when could you legislate to sell-off somebody else’s assets?

The Labour party is now offering all sorts of goodies, including capping private rent increases (not sure how they would achieve this) and removing stamp duty for first time buyers (which will probably just push prices up even further).

What we really need is a lot more homes, of all types. It’s the chronic shortfall in supply that is the problem.