As if further evidence were needed, Vince Cable confirms the divergence of opinion on policy, in this case on Help-to-Buy and house building, as both factions of the Coalition Government get closer to a general election.
Speaking at the Liberal Party Conference in Glasgow Monday, Vince Cable expressed his concerns that Tory policies were leading to growing inequality between the social classes and generations.
In his conference speech Cable warned of a ‘deepening inequality between social classes’ and between the generations because of a housing market crisis which, he thinks, is being exacerbated by chancellor Osborne?s Help to Buy and Right to Buy schemes.
A motion to give local authorities the power to suspend Right to Buy in their local areas was passed at the Lib Dems conference.
It was argued that council tenants are being given big incentives to purchase their own homes from councils without any moves on the part of these councils to build-up enough replacement social housing stock.
Speaking in favour of the motion Vince Cable had said: ‘The Right to Buy policy, without replacement, has done enormous damage and we have to stop that,’
In the past Vince cable has warned many times of the dangers of the Help-to-Buy scheme creating another house price bubble, despite the fact that the Lib Dems approved the policy.
The Lib Dem conference Monday approved a motion in favour building more social housing as a part of their pledge to build 300,000 homes a year.
Backing the Labour proposal for a Help-to-Build scheme to increase supply, Cable had said that the real crux of the problem is the shortage of social housing and that Osborne?s policy called Help to Buy should be replaced by ‘Help-to-Build?.
Cable thought that ‘cynical Tories’ ignore the young and middle-aged being frozen out because their core vote is older home owners.
… LandlordZONE.
Article courtesy of LandlordZONE””
