Adam Smith Institute

View Original

Good riddance Help to Buy

Following the news that Philip Hammond is to scrap the Help to Buy scheme, Sam Dumitriu praised the decision in the press:

"Philip Hammond is right to dump George Osborne's misguided mortgage guarantee scheme. The Adam Smith Institute has consistently called for the scheme to scrapped, publishing the paper "Burning down the house" in 2013, arguing that increasing liquidity in the housing market through government intervention will do little to solve the UK’s long-run housing supply shortage.
 
“Britain's housing crisis is the result of supply being unable to meet rising demand. Help to Buy only served to make this problem worse, pushing up prices through cheap credit, while doing nothing to address the underlying housing shortage.
 
“There is a better way. Liberalise our antiquated planning laws to allow new building in the areas that people actually want to live.”

The comment was covered by The Daily Express, MetroThe Sun, Daily Mail, ITVLBCSky News and 355 regional titles.