Will George Osborne’s manipulation of the property market cause catastrophe? In this week’s Spectator cover feature, Merryn Somerset Webb argues the Chancellor’s recycling of cheap debt through his Help To Buy and Funding for Lending schemes will jack up house prices and increase demand to a dangerous point. Norman Lamont agrees in his diary this week, suggesting that ‘some day this bubble will meet a pin’. On the latest View from 22 podcast, Fraser Nelson and Isabel Hardman discuss the monetary and political implications of the Chancellor’s housing motives. Why is the government so keen to increase home ownership? Are ministers willing to relax their stance on planning regulations? And what does this mean for families desperate to get on the property ladder?
Janan Ganesh from the Financial Times also joins to discuss Tory wars and why the party membership is to blame for the disconnect. James Forsyth disagrees, and argues the Tory leadership has to take their share of responsibility for the disagreements, and make appropriate amends. Plus,
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