A host of speakers at a buy-to-let event have poured scorn on the Government’s housing policies.
Speaking at the inaugural Great Buy to Let debate inWestminster, industry experts slammed a host of Government schemes such as Funding for Lending, NewBuy and FirstBuy.
John Heron, managing director of specialist lender Paragon Mortgages, said: “Politicians are tinkering around at the edges and seeking headlines.
“They are being schizophrenic. On the one hand, they are doing everything they can to drive lenders away from high-risk lending, On the other hand, they are coming up with initiatives encouraging 95% mortgages on new-builds to first-time buyers.”
Richard Lambert, chief executive of the National Landlords Association, called for a root and branch reform of housing policy that goes beyond politics and forms a national debate on the future of housing over the next 20 years.
Lambert said the country was beginning to see a shift in the way it houses itself. He said that it was not unimaginable that 40% of the population would never be able to afford to enter home ownership from their own resources.
Also speaking at the event was Professor Michael Ball who refused to accept the idea that people were turning to private renting because they preferred the flexibility of the lifestyle.
He said that it was “basic economics” that people would want to buy their own houses if their finances enabled them to, in order to take advantage of rising equity.
He also suggested that falling house prices in the last five years had also put people off buying their own homes.