Tuesday 23 October 2012

They own land, give them... oh, hang on...

Spotted by Bob E at the BBC:

Housing Minister Mark Prisk said that, "with over three million people relying on the private rented sector for their housing needs, we are determined to attract new players to the market and pull out all the stops to get Britain building".

"That's why we're offering £10bn in loan guarantees to provide up to 15,000 new homes for rent, putting £19.5bn public and private funding into an affordable homes programme..."


Er, we can see a bit of a snag here, sir, you've decided how much taxpayers' money you'd like to throw at them, but they don't actually own any land yet..

"... and why we've identified enough formerly-used surplus public sector land to sell for 100,000 new homes."

Ah, thanks for the clarification, sir. What, with the government having that £29.5 billion to spare and enough land for 100,000 homes, it could of course just build those 100,000 homes itself for under £10 billion, saving the taxpayer about £20 billion, but I'm sure there's a very good reason why giving the private sector three times as much is a better idea. Sir.

9 comments:

Duncan Stott said...

"£10bn in loan guarantees to provide up to 15,000 new homes for rent".

That's a £660,000 loan guarantee per home. WTF?

Bayard said...

DS, I don't supposed they bothered to make the figures add up; it's a thinly disguised excuse for giving money to their friends in the construction industry; those chaps are such reliable supporters of the Tory party.

JuliaM said...

*bangs head on desk*

A K Haart said...

My mind just boggles when I see stories like this shoved out without any kind of adverse comment. It shouldn't boggle but it does.

Maybe there is a calculator shortage at the BBC.

Mark Wadsworth said...

DS, don't ask me, they just make up numbers.

B, that must be the answer.

JM, sorry, but this is what our government is seriously proposing.

AKH, they don't do calculators, they do "big numbers" like 100,000 homes or £19.5 billion and hope that nobody else has a calculator either.

Bayard said...

Shouldn't the title of this be: "They have money, give them land"?

Old BE said...

I'll sell them one of their 100,000, for half the price they are offering to house-builders. I'll then go and buy a new-build house just to make sure the supply is actually increased.

How about it?

BE

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, at the moment, they have neither land nor money and they get given both.

BE, seems fair enough to me.

Robin Smith said...

No no, they actually believe that money grows on trees, house prices will increase without anyone doing any more work, that land values rise before wealth is created, that rent no longer exists. That pyramid selling works. Got to an Amway event, they would be more in touch with reality. They really really believe it. This is no joke.

Btw i got you 5 lighters for a quid on South St market yesterday. The trader was going balistic about the rents.