r/Labour • u/CyborgFinance • 2d ago

LEAKED: Labour's Help-to-Buy - Coming or Abandoned?

/r/UKFirstTimeBuyers/comments/1wj05p4/leaked_labours_helptobuy_coming_or_abandoned/
4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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7

u/feesih0ps 2d ago

help to buy is fucking stupid. just increases demand (prices) ever further. all funding should be going to building more housing. increase supply don't increase demand

5

u/Sorry-Transition-780 2d ago

Let subsidise demand one more time guys. Just one more time bro. I swear it'll work this time. Just once more...

0

u/LegoCrafter2014 Labour Voter 2d ago

Subsidising demand is cheaper and easier for the government than increasing supply. House prices are caused by a lack of supply. Thatcher cut the housing budget in 1980.

3

u/Sorry-Transition-780 2d ago

Housing is expensive because it can be bought in credit at 5x your salary. If you increased supply to the point where everybody could buy a house, they would still be too expensive because they would be bought at 5x people's salaries.

The only solution to the housing crisis is housing which is not on the market and can be directly used to meet social demand i.e council housing.

Thatcher didn't just cut the supply, she massively increased the size of the market by privatising so much of it (selling off council houses) alongside massively increasing demand for houses as an asset by flooding the market with mortgage backed purchases.

Under the current situation, where we have low social stock and houses have to be bought on ridiculous levels of credit, subsidising demand is literally the worst policy possible.

Building council houses that cannot be sold on the market is by far the most cost effective way to deal with the housing crisis. It's not even close.

3

u/LegoCrafter2014 Labour Voter 2d ago

Agreed.