Rents fall in real terms, again
View image | gettyimages.com Once again, that boring little thing called evidence undermines the standard political rhetoric which infuses housing policy. Yes, house prices are going up. But rents?...
View ArticleHooray: a Liberal Democrat who gets ones of the neglected areas of housing...
#72415050 / gettyimages.com Regular readers will know my scepticism about much of what passes for housing policies in current politics, based on four main concerns: The talking of building new homes...
View ArticleThose falling rents: some footnotes
#457202702 / gettyimages.com Each time I blog about how rents are falling, not rising, in real terms there’s a burst of comments from which some common patterns emerge. So I thought it’d be useful to...
View ArticleSee how housing has failed to keep up with population – but only very recently
Housebuilding and population growth back to 1851 pic.twitter.com/NvJ2KUVLpK — Neal Hudson (@resi_analyst) January 9, 2015 Three things strike me about this graph: There is a problem with the housing...
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New figures show rents higher but still anything but soaring
I’ve blogged a fair few times about how the ONS’s official figures have been showing rents falling in real terms and the gap between that evidence and the standard political rhetoric about soaring...
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Want to get housing policy right? You need to learn from road building
Imagine what would happen if, due to an unfortunate editing error, the transport and housing policy speeches of a centre-left, environmentally friendly politician – who could be a Lib Dem, Green,...
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First increase in social housing for over 30 years: just one of the Lib Dem...
For more, see the full infographic: What have the Liberal Democrats achieved in government? Show support for Lib Dems on social media The Liberal Democrats have achieved so much in the last five...
View ArticleTim Farron and, er…, Justin Bieber Carpool Karaoke
First off, here’s the new film from Lib Dem leadership contender Tim Farron (see earlier today for the one from Norman Lamb). Tim’s talking about housing (on which see my take on his views here): And...
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Keith House writes: The new Housing Finance Institute can help councils build...
This piece from the party website on a topic very much flavour of the month in Lib Dem policy debates is worth a wider airing too. It’s by Keith House, leader of Eastleigh Council. Britain needs to...
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Spotted in the wild: leadership candidates’ economic policies – along with...
Yesterday I ran the answers from Norman Lamb and Tim Farron to my question about Chris Rennard’s future role in the party. Today it’s the turn of the long lost economic policies of the candidates,...
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Private renting up for the first time in a century
New figures from the ONS today confirm that private renting is on the increase: Over the last century, the structure of home ownership in England and Wales has changed. Policies and economic...
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Why aren’t more people moving to live in Hartlepool, Belfast or Rutland?
When reviewing David Boyle’s excellent Broke: Who Killed the Middle Class, I mentioned the simple but unpopular answer to rising property prices meaning people can no longer afford the sort of...
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Vindication for Vince
Vince Cable allies pleased Governor Carney reportedly wants Help to Buy maximum loan reduced from £600,000 to £350,000. Vince Vindication. — Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) January 24, 2014
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Once again, Labour admits it stuffed up on housing
The Evening Standard reports: A Labour parliamentary candidate has attacked his party’s record on housebuilding when it was last in government in the Blair-Brown era. Will Martindale, who will stand...
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Homes for Haringey says it’ll take a year to repair a fence
Nothing like speedy service: @haringeycouncil @HarringayKJA Resident has just told me that Homes for Haringey say their toppled fence can't be fixed until January 2015!! — Richard Wilson...
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Not such a house price bubble?
Here’s an intriguing graph via the economist Simon Wren-Lewis: UK First time buyer mortgage payments as a percentage of mean disposable income. Source: Nationwide Outside London in particular, house...
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Comfort food for the liberal soul: Tim Farron’s William Beveridge Memorial...
‘I’m not Nick, I don’t have a privileged background, I agree with you on lots of things and I can give a good speech’. That was Tim Farron’s message in a nutshell when he gave the William Beveridge...
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Reasons to be sceptical about making housing central to the party’s political...
In my critique of Tim Farron’s William Beveridge Memorial Lecture and the purpose which such a political speech should have, I mentioned my doubts over the way in which the Liberal Democrat Party...
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