News Review
Party conferences spark housing free-for-all By Sarah Davidson
Te Liberal Democrat and Labour party conferences held in recent weeks saw poli- ticians wade into the housing policy debate. Deputy Prime Minister
Nick Clegg tabled plans to allow parents to guarantee their children’s mortgage us- ing a lump sum pension pay- out. He hoped the idea would make the path to homeown- ership more affordable and that many “desperate” young people would be able to buy their home sooner because the guarantee would mean they needed a smaller depos- it. Te Lib Dems said around 250,000 people had a pen- sion pot of £40,000, with a lump sum element of around a quarter - £10,000 - which could be used as a guaran- tee. Tey estimated that 5% of those with a suitable lump sum would take advantage of the scheme, meaning 12,500 people could potentially ben- efit. Clegg said: “We are going
to work out ways in which parents and grandparents who want to help their chil- dren and grandchildren buy a property of their own. We
are going to allow those par- ents and grandparents to act as a guarantee, if you like, so their youngsters... can take out a deposit and buy a home. It is a pension-from-property scheme.”
“Many desperate young people would be able to buy their home sooner”
£2m mansion tax Lib Dems at the party confer- ence also voted almost unani- mously to impose an annual mansion tax on homes worth more than £2m, backing a motion tabled by Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott. Te party called the move a “wealth taxation designed to reduce inequality”. Just two out of 200 hundred delegates voted against the policy. And Lib Dems also took
the opportunity to urge Tory ministers to scrap plans to re- lax planning regulations that would allow 26ſt long exten- sions to be built amid fears it could blight homes and
reduce property prices. Gov- ernment ministers unveiled plans on 6 September allow- ing residents to double the size of home extensions built without planning permis- sion to 6m (19ſt) beyond the back wall of a semi-detached house, or 8m (26ſt) in the case of a detached house.
Labour: 4G fund Labour meanwhile called for 100,000 new affordable homes and a two year stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers on properties under £250,000 paid for by the sale of the 4G mobile spectrum. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls
told Labour party confer- ence delegates in Manchester this “urgent action” would kick start growth and sup- port jobs. He said: “With this one-off windfall from the sale of the 4G spectrum, let’s cut through the dither and rhet- oric and actually do some- thing. Not more talk, but ac- tion right now. “Let’s commit that money
from the 4G sale and build over the next two years: 100,000 new homes - afford- able homes to rent and to buy - creating hundreds of thou-
sands of jobs and getting the construction industry mov- ing again. Add to that a stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers, and we can deliver real help for people aspiring to get on the property ladder.” Te 4G sale has been esti-
mated to generate between £3bn and £4bn and Ofcom has told the government that the process could be acceler- ated to launch 4G networks in many places by May or June 2013. In 2000 the 3G spec- trum auction raised £22.5bn which helped Labour pay down national debt. Matthew Turner, director
of buying agents Astute Prop- erty Search, said: “Balls is no mug. He knows that the re- cent stamp duty holiday liſted transaction levels and created a feel-good factor in the prop- erty market.” But Turner added that “this
is a promise based on a prem- ise — that Balls ever gets back into power”. And he said: “Te afford-
able homes part of Balls’ plan will more than likely be viewed as just another hare- brained scheme that is un- likely to make any material difference to the market.”
4 MORTGAGE INTRODUCER OCTOBER 2012
www.mortgageintroducer.com
F R O M 4.78%
BUY TO LET 5 YEAR FIXED
G R E A T B R I T I S H M O R T G A G E S
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