According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, 81 per cent of British people want to own their homes within the next ten years. George Osborne is the latest in a long line of politicians, including Thatcher and Macmillan, who have made our nation’s obsession with outright ownership central to their policy.
This preoccupation with actually owning a freehold is noticeably absent in my favourite literary depiction of acquiring a house, Vita Sackville-West’s All Passion Spent. On the death of her husband, Lady Slane defies her awful children and moves from Chelsea to rent a house in Hampstead, which she remembers from many years ago. ‘Very quiet, very distinguished, very old, very frail,’ it is as though 88-year-old Lady Slane ‘had some secret understanding with the house, and it were waiting for her, patient, after thirty years’.
The house is indeed lying empty. Lady Slane meets Mr Bucktrout, the agent and owner of the property — an endearing ‘strange little figure’, fond of twirling ‘neat pirouettes’.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in