As if proof were needed that this government has lost its grip, the centrepiece of today’s Not The Queen’s Speech is a plan to lure thousands of low-paid workers into state-sponsored negative equity.
The government expects the housing market to crash by up to 10%, as we know from Caroline Flint. Yet today, Brown sets aside £200m to buy unsold houses, at the top of the market. And £100m to lure first time buyers into this crashing market with a shared equity scheme – or shared negative equity, as it will be. Only open to the lowest earners, i.e .those who can least afford negative equity. From the man who sold gold at the bottom, a scheme to gave the poor buy houses at the top. You couldn’t make it up.
The Tories should take this idea apart. Problem is, they are proposing a version of the same. The bursting of the asset bubble demands new ideas and new thinking.
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