In MetroTalk: What's inflating housing prices? Readers share their thoughts.
Labour has restored mandatory housing targets to build 1.5 million homes, including affordable and council housing. But how realistic is this goal? Can they achieve what the Tories didn’t?
A reader in today’s MetroTalk notes that it’s not the government building houses, but big house builders.
In the meantime, what’s driving house price inflation? Should the UK sacrifice its greenbelt? High water bills and are we taking too many showers?
Share your thoughts on these topics and more in the comments.
Regarding Labour’s plans to relax planning rules in order to tackle the housing crisis and stimulate economic growth (MetroTalk, Thu).
I have worked in the house-building industry for more than 30 years and every time I hear a government minister say they have built x number of houses in the year, I laugh.
The government does not build houses – it leaves that to the big house builders.
And it is not planning that is stopping house building. It is not in the interest of the big house builders to hit any target – it is simple supply and demand.
If they hit a yearly target, house prices would tumble along with their profits.
They currently start building a home only when they have sold it, as can be seen by figures.
The housing crisis can be solved only by real social housing – but no government would do that because it would cause a market collapse. GGT, The South-East
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I totally agree with Vic Parks (MetroTalk, Thu), who says foreign investors are inflating UK house prices.
Before they are even built, a lot of UK properties are marketed and sold in south-east Asia, where properties are very expensive.
An article published by a wealth investment management company three years ago indicated that Hong Kong was the fifth-largest foreign investor in central London alone.
As published in December 2023, there are more than 30,000 registrations of foreign companies – not individuals – owning properties in the UK.
Can anyone provide the ratio of properties owned by UK citizens vs non-UK citizens in this no-longer green and pleasant land? Mity, London
There is a simple answer to Thursday’s MetroTalk question of whether green belt should be sacrificed in the name of growth. It is ‘yes’.
England’s ‘green and pleasant land’ has billions of acres of wasted green space upon which affordable homes could easily be built. Millions of acres of brown belt, with derelict and empty buildings, could easily be redeveloped.
If the new Labour government can change the planning regulations and urge the Nimbys to stop whining and embrace change, then a generation of young would-be homeowners and renters would be very happy. What’s not to like about that?Al Charlton, via email
Enough dreams have been sacrificed on the altar of Nimby homeowners’ self-interest. We live in a country where societal progress is permanently stalled by an endless stream of these naysayers. Yann, Manchester
Regulator Ofwat has given the green light to bill hikes but not by as much as the water companies wanted (Metro, Fri).
The cheek of these companies saying it’s not enough to pay for investment.
Why don’t they use money from dividends and bonuses instead?
Bonuses should be based on performance, not a contractual ‘given’.
Thames Water, which is £15billion in debt, says it needs the money for its ‘turnaround plan’, meaning the price increase will be used to pay its debts and bonuses. Pedro, Hammersmith
Perhaps water companies should look at how much of our bill payments go to shareholders instead of towards maintenance and improvements to the country’s systems, or how much the company CEOs take, thanks to bonuses on top of their high salaries.
They had already attempted to shift the cost of cleaning our rivers on to the public after dumping tonnes of sewage into them, as they are more concerned with hoarding their own wealth than using it to invest in the companies they profit from. Matthew, Birmingham.
P Munden (MetroTalk, Fri) says we should be using less water and that people shower more than necessary. Plenty of people shower only once a week these days… they just happen to always be in my train carriage. Joe, London
Further to the prison overcrowding crisis (MetroTalk, Fri), thousands of people are in jail only because they couldn’t afford a decent lawyer. If every person in prison in the UK had lawyers like those for Donald Trump or OJ Simpson, our jails would be half-empty. Richard Farrar, London
