"It is mad, mad, mad, yet much of Britain's economic structure and culture are invested in the madness"

"The government will build no homes itself: it confines itself to measures such as build to rent or Help to Buy, where new homes are a hoped-for consequence of its guarantees and measures. But it will take no direct action. A useful stimulus, but I am told George Osborne only endorsed Help to Buy, with its Keynesian overtones, when he was assured it would help create rising house prices and a feelgood factor for Tory voters. Disappointing.

Almost every dial on housing policy is on the wrong setting. A government that wanted to break into a saner world would move on a number of fronts. It would devise mechanisms to wean the financial system off its addiction to residential property lending, probably setting overall limits to the growth of categories of credit, such as mortgages, and controlling mortgage loan-to-property price ratios. It would revalue properties to today's values and then introduce a graduated system of taxation".

Will does however suggest that it isn't really, as some suggest, bonanza time for Landlords ...

"But because house prices are so high, the buy-to-let company Paragon – speaking for most private landlords – complained, in evidence to the select committee on communities and local government, that the yield it gets is a mere 6%. Although these figures may be higher than the yields gained from investing in stocks and shares – so Paragon should complain less – they are hardly at profiteering levels. To end up in a situation with both close-to impossibly high rents for tenants and moderate returns to landlords takes some doing".

... before returning to 

"The taxation of property is stuck at 1991 values because no politician will entertain the political fallout of organising the council tax on proper, up-to-date valuations, let alone entertain introducing a rational system of property tax".