Tuesday 11 September 2012

Jospeh Rowntree Foundation takes tentative first steps...

From their report summary:

Volatility has plagued the UK housing market for four decades. The JRF Housing Market Taskforce identified ways to create a more sustainable housing market. This paper presents a progress report, and highlights key priorities for the Government.

Key points

The Government should*:

• Conduct a revaluation of property for Council Tax purposes with a view to gradually transforming it into a national land and property value tax, following full modelling to identify difficulties and to inform its design.

• Ensure the Financial Policy Committee has the power to introduce mortgage credit controls, and that the housing market as a whole is monitored as a threat to wider economic stability.

• Monitor the FSA’s new mortgage rules to ensure they do not unnecessarily exclude low risk borrowers from the housing market, collecting the necessary data to do this and formally reviewing the rules after three years.

• Introduce a more effective safety net for home-owners that shares responsibility fairly between home-owners, lenders and government.

• Switch the emphasis of housing subsidies away from a reliance on Housing Benefit towards housing supply, as part of a new model for financing new affordable housing.


Three out of five ain't bad.

* Yes I know we can ignore arguments based on "should", but firstly I'm quoting and secondly this is their recommendations based on facts, evidence and so on.

7 comments:

James Higham said...

Ensure the Financial Policy Committee has the power to introduce mortgage credit controls, and that the housing market as a whole is monitored as a threat to wider economic stability.

The monitoring is a threat?

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, clumsily worded, I admit.

I think that they meant that the 'housing market' (i.e. credit fuelled land speculation), is the biggest drag on Western economies, short of a Communist take-over.

Lola said...

Well, 2 and 3 seem tome to be asking for it. It's banking that needs reforming, including the central bank. As for 3, anything introduced by the failed FSA is self evidnetly suspect. To put it bluntly they are complete tossers.

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, agreed, 2 and 3 are a load of nonsense.

Robin Smith said...

They only need one hit out of 5 and I canmot ser it here!

All the above will make matters worse, by pretending to commit is like saying energy saving light bulbs will save the planet.

The end result of this planet saving is for people to say

"look, we told you LVT is a terrible mistake, there is proof"

So it gets buried away deep for another biz cycle. History so testifies. Why keep ignoring it?

LVT fans have probably the worst political strategy ever known to mankind.

Robin Smith said...

Apols for typos.

Mark Wadsworth said...

RS, the authors recommended this:

"Conduct a revaluation of property for Council Tax purposes with a view to gradually transforming it into a national land and property value tax, following full modelling to identify difficulties and to inform its design."

Which looks like a first, albeit tentative, step towards common sense to me.

"LVT fans have probably the worst political strategy ever known to mankind."

Up to now, yes, but we intend to change that, don't we? By going into politics.