Financial Times: "UK policy not to blame for housing shortage, says economist Barker"

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"The economist who conducted a review of housing policy for the Labour government in 2004 believes public hostility to housebuilding and the credit crisis are the two main reasons for Britain’s lack of homes, not government failures.

"Kate Barker, an economist and former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, made a set of recommendations to Gordon Brown when he was chancellor in 2004. Among them were the creation of a regional planning executive and a community infrastructure fund.

"... Ms Barker said that the housing shortage was feeding into wider inequalities between generations and between rich and poor and said it was unfair that no one paid capital gains tax on their primary home."

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The Guardian:
"The housing market is broken. But in Camden we are starting to fix it"

"Britain faces a housing crisis. For a long time, people on low incomes have been struggling with the cost and quality of housing. But it’s now so acute that, in my role as leader of Camden council, even senior people in multinationals raise with me on a regular basis the issue of housing for their staff.

"Camden’s housing market is one of the most extreme in the country. The average cost of a house is £700,000. This would require a household income of about £175,000 to get a mortgage. Average weekly rent for a two-bed flat is £440, requiring an annual income of about £70,000. Even Boris Johnson’s so-called affordable rents, at 80% of the market rate, need an income of £50,000. Average earnings in Camden are £33,000. Something has to give.

"... The housing market is broken for a few reasons, but the main one is the market itself. House builders – private companies in the main – benefit from spiralling values. One way to keep prices rising is to restrict supply. This started under Thatcher with right-to-buy. She stopped councils building replacement homes for the ones that were sold off, with the idea that the private market would step in. It didn’t. She let existing stock slide into disrepair. When Labour came to power in 1997 the focus was investment in existing stock and only latterly on building. But crucially, and fatally, Labour didn’t reverse Thatcher’s ban on councils building until 2009."