The latest non-job in Britain’s town halls is the affordable housing officer
The latest non-job in Britain’s town halls is the affordable housing officer, a bureaucrat with the brief of bringing down the price of property. What local and central government mean by ‘affordable housing’ is, of course, housing that is more affordable, but the fact is that all housing is affordable, otherwise it would not sell or let. Not all housing is affordable to everyone, however — but then it never was.
Affordable housing (lack of) is nevertheless one of the causes of the day for the something-must-be-down-about-it campaigners. There is a National Affordable Housing Programme. A coalition of Shelter, local government and several other usual suspects is demanding the government spend £11.6 billion to provide low-cost homes. The housing minister Yvette Cooper counters that Labour has doubled the investment in affordable housing over its decade, but, as house prices have trebled in the same period, she would be better off pointing out just why they are so ‘unaffordable’.
It is not sellers who drive up prices, nor housebuilders, nor even the price of bricks. It is not land values — they are high because builders outbid each other for sites. It is not even wicked estate agents. It is buyers who set prices. Every time a purchaser offers an extra £1,000 to secure a property, he or she has pushed up prices yet further. If there really was a lack of would-be first-time buyers, sellers would have to drop their prices; instead it is competition between those jostling to get their foot on the ladder that constantly pushes the bottom rung further away.
And the more money people have available to spend on property, the higher they inflate prices.
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