There is rarely a day when the government’s Help to Buy scheme isn’t criticised by some major organisation or political figure, and today’s rebuke was provided by Ed Balls. In his speech to the CBI, he warned that inflating demand without significantly increasing supply would deliver “an unbalanced recovery” and “make home ownership even further out of reach for the aspiring first time buyers his scheme should be helping.”
But unperturbed by such criticisms, the Tories are convinced that the policy is “retail gold”. George Pascoe Watson recently reported that David Cameron had “ordered staff to ensure he meets couples taking advantage of the £10,000 assistance on offer whenever he goes on a regional visit”. But while those who benefit directly from Help to Buy will obviously be grateful, what of those who don’t? George Osborne reportedly told the cabinet recently, “Hopefully we will get a little housing boom and everyone will be happy as property values go up”, but he would be wrong to assume that the public regard higher house prices as an unqualified good. A new poll by Ipsos MORI for Inside Housing shows that 57% disagree that “rising house prices are a good thing for Britain” (23% of whom strongly disagree), while just 20% agree. In addition, by 41% to 29%, they disagree that “rising house prices are a good thing for me personally”. The recent experience of the crash and concern at the lack of affordable housing for young people has, perhaps unsurprisingly, persuaded the public that inflating another housing bubble isn’t a great idea.
If the impression develops that the government is focused on stimulating demand rather than expanding supply, Help to Buy could well prove a vote loser. By pledging to build 200,000 homes a year by 2017 and to limit the inflationary effect of Help to Buy (most obviously by reducing the current £600,000 cap for support), Labour is positioning itself to take advantage of this new sceptical mood.
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