British families,"unaffordable" Homes .....
APRIL 04, 2014,HOME ownership is becoming "unaffordable" for middle-income British families, Business Secretary Vince Cable has warned, amid fears rising prices are stoking a new property market bubble.
In an interview with The Independent, the Liberal Democrat cabinet minister said there were still not enough homes being built to satisfy the demand of people wanting to buy a place of their own.
"The fundamental problem is a chronic imbalance between supply and demand. A recovering mortgage market is just fuelling demand again," he said.
"A family on average income is nowhere near able to afford a house at the average price. Property has become much more unaffordable for people on middle incomes."
His intervention comes after a survey by the Nationwide Building Society found that the "house price gap" between London and the rest of the country was at its widest since records began in the 1970s.
Cable hit back at the Conservative housing minister Kris Hopkins who suggested that rising house prices were a good thing.
"If you are an owner-occupier who has paid off your mortgage, it is an increase in your paper or real wealth," he said.
"But if you are a young family trying to get into the housing market and it is unaffordable, it is an extremely bad thing."
Comments (1)
What Vince Cable doesn't point out, unsurprisingly, is that another way of dealing with the housing problem is not only to build more homes, but to reduce the number of people looking for homes. And there are many people in this country who we're not advantaged by or obligated to their being here.
The London problem could be dealt with by having an industrial strategy in the way that Germany or France has, to avoid the monopoly of the national economy to London finance, so that the rest of the country can compete against the capital by the distribution of industry inherent to more resourceful economies. Housing costs would follow the money.