Sometimes I read the papers and wonder just where they get their ideas from. Maybe they have some bright stars working away in the background diligently researching the intricacies, effects and implications of the raft of policies that they need to produce. Or maybe they just think of things over the lunchtime Gin & Tonic.
This week we have the Lib Dem* Treasury spokesman Vince Cable leaping into the fray with a beany new idea that local councils can single-handedly support the currently slumping housing market by purchasing empty properties and developers’ unused land. I’m not sure what exactly they are supposed to do with these assets afterwards, and I’m not sure he does either, because a couple of seconds of thought came up with some rather obvious flaws.
Firstly, exactly who will fund this spending spree? Local tax-payers? Hardly. Council reserves? Well, they don’t have any these days. Government? I think not, they have bigger problems just balancing the books at the moment. Let’s not forget, they have to build on the land they aquire, so more cost there. Oh, and presumably they’d just grant themselves planning permission and side-step the normal messy round of objections and meetings? One certainly hopes not.
Now I have nothing against the Lib Dems, and in fact I can see this kind of policy being put forward by any of the main parties, and there is actually some possible good potential here to rebuild a better level of social housing stock at a reasonable price, but at the levels which it is likely to happen at it is not going to have the slightest effect on the property market.
Nice try Vince, keep ‘em coming.
* for non-UK readers, the Liberal Democrats (’Lib Dems’) are the second major party currently in opposition.
