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Helping to re-balance supply and demand - and thus ease the
price spiral - is what Mr Prescott's intervention is intended to
do. Last year, Ms Barker, an economist, produced a review which
proposed to tackle such basic issues as planning law - highly
sensitive in the south-east where demand is highest - land
release and building capacity.
Ms
Barker also warned that Britain would have to build 150,000 more
homes a year than is currently planned to choke off demand-led
price rises. Mr Prescott, already unpopular in the shires, will
go some way to meet that target with a mixture of greenfield and
brownfield sites.
Another
remedy he is expected to embrace would see the kind of property
investment funds popular in the US rented housing market
established in Britain, to provide what housing experts say is
needed more urgently than assistance to first-time buyers.
The
Brown shared equity scheme would cut the cost of a £200,000
home - roughly the London average - by up to £372 a month. The
private owner and the government/building society financing the
other half of the purchase would share any rise in value when it
is sold - or any loss. The owner would have the option to buy
the other half.
The scheme will cost around £100m over five years -
though the investment is likely to be recouped on sale. It has
social goals, to help nurses and teachers who get priced out of
markets, but the mortgage lenders also believe it will stimulate
the market.
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