Keith Boyfield’s letter to The Daily Telegraph, Thursday 19 September 2013.
SIR – The news that Rightmove, the property website, has revised upwards its forecast of average national residential property prices by a factor of three is deeply troubling (report, September 16).
This surge in house prices underlines the need to construct more housing rather than bolster demand through the Government’s Help to Buy initiative.
Britain’s byzantine planning regulations need consolidating. There is considerable scope to develop new Garden Cities, so long as they provide a mix of dwellings to buy and rent – in contrast to the brutalist horrors imposed on Cumbernauld and Skelmersdale by post-war planners.
If the Government fails to act on house construction we will all suffer, not only young families in search of a place to buy.
Keith Boyfield
Centre for Policy Studies
London SW1
Date Added: Thursday 19th September 2013
