If you ever needed reminding that government is a series of swings and roundabouts ensuring that what you gain on one you lose on the other, consider the coalition’s plans for something called the NewBuy Guarantee. This project is designed to assist househunters by providing 95% mortgages for houses costing as much as £500,000. The government says it will help 100,000 families onto the “property ladder”.
In itself, this is not an ignoble aim, though as always one is struck by the fact that the response to a period in which banks and building societies leant too recklessly is to ask them to lend more recklessly than they presently consider prudent. Certainly, times are tough for some people anxious to start purchasing property; it is their bad luck to do so at this particular time.
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