The Not So Weekly Poll Lowdown

Yes it has been a while, about 3 weeks in fact, but finally I'm going to do the 'weekly' poll lowdown. At least the passage of time has meant a lot more people have voted which is always good. It seems that 48% of you do not agree with the Help to Buy scheme and 39% of you do.

Do you agree with the help to buy scheme?

Yes	39%
No	48%
Unsure	13%

Total votes: 110

I agree with the Help to Buy scheme. It is a very Conservative idea that people should own their homes and at the moment there is a big problem in people not owning their own homes. The ability to own your own house is a cornerstone in popular capitalism and people running their own lives. Also, Government with overly strict planning laws has contributed a lot to the rise in house prices and so the natural thing is for them to make amends and solve it.

I would like to question somewhat why we at the moment need the help to buy scheme. At the moment construction is going through a boom with growth of over 8%. Lots of houses are being built of all sorts of values for people to live in. This is all naturally occurring because of the growth in the UK not government intervention. Is it thus really necessary now for Government to step in?

Gideon having tea with some of the first Help to Buy recipients.

The Help to Buy scheme is something people should still monitor as well because it has the potential to cause a bubble. By putting lots of money into a market which is already booming we could end up with everyone, with the government's help, investing in houses and then finding out that they have lost a lot of money. Also the government is lending to people that banks have turned down for mortgages. This is not to say the Help to Buy scheme a huge bastion of irresponsible lending, because the people receiving a loan can pay a mortgage they just don't have enough money to pay all the deposit. However, there must be a reason why the banks have got such a deposit level which some people cannot afford. If there is a housing bubble this would be highly ironic because this is how the 2008 recession was caused.

Atlee's planning laws are causing a bit of problem.

Also the Help to Buy scheme doesn't actually solve the problem. House prices are too high and people still won't be able to buy homes without help from the state. Why are houses to high? Well for the most part it's because of  Town and Country Planning Act of 1949. There are so many regulations in there that houses are a lot harder to build and thus the price of housing spirals out of control.

Of course the reason for the act was the age old battle of urban sprawl and the countryside. There hasn't really been a good solution to this conflict as the falling numbers in property ownership shows this. It would be unfair to just tear up the Town and Country Planning Act and enforce mass building upon green belts. I think therefore there should be local referendum across the whole country on getting rid of certain sections of the Town and Country Planning Act so people have a choice and a vote on the matter. This would mean those who really want to defend local green belts do not get a national imposition of housing being built on green fields.

So Dave start trying to solve the root of the problem as well as using the help to buy scheme.

Make sure you vote in the new poll on the sidebar.