Well, it didn’t take long, did it?
A few months into office, and already the housing minister is saying: “There will be no return to the way it was, because boom and bust in housing cannot be allowed to happen again.”
Grant Shapps said it at the National Housing Federation annual conference.But what he did NOT say was perhaps more interesting.
On the same day, Wednesday, another conference – organised by the Council of Mortgage Lenders – heard that public spending cuts will be between 25–40%.
The 40% bit came as news to some of us, especially when repeated by more than one speaker.It was left to Richard Capie, director of policy and practice at the Chartered Institute of Housing, to explain that some public budgets, such as defence and health, would not be able to withstand cuts of as much as 25%, and therefore other budgets would be cut harder. He named transport and housing, the implication being that it would be the private rented sector coming to the rescue of those unable to be housed by local councils.
