Property News · June 21, 2024

How a disastrous Tory policy blew up the housing market


In the second instalment of a special series on the emblems of Tory Britain, Oliver Wainwright looks at help to buy, a scheme that cost billions, pushed up prices, did almost nothing for new buyers – but made house builders a lot of moneyWith a penthouse in Santa Monica, a rambling Georgian manor in North Yorkshire and a five-bedroom mews house in Kensington, Rishi Sunak knows a thing or two about the joys of home ownership. “I want everyone to feel what I felt when I got the keys to my first flat,” Sunak said in his recent televised debate with Keir Starmer, recalling the moment he stepped into his South Ken pied-à-terre for the first time.Launching his election manifesto, Sunak reiterated the Tory party’s eternal commitment to estate agents, house builders and the transformational power of bricks and mortar. “From Macmillan to Thatcher to today,” he declared, “it is we Conservatives who are the party of the property-owning democracy in this country.” Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
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