House prices will fall under a Labour government: it’ll build on Green Belt, says Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer: he’s pointing where he wants the value of people’s housing to go – down.
Here’s another Keir Starmer promise that may never be honoured.
He reckons house prices will fall under a Labour government because he’ll boost the supply of housing – build new homes.
So for many homeowners, the biggest investment they have ever made in their lives will lose value, thanks to Labour.
And there is no guarantee that the people who need new housing will be able to afford whatever Starmer may build.
Here’s what he said:
“At the moment, one of the reasons that house prices are so high is because people hold land, trying to ensure that it gains as much value as possible,” he said.
The Labour leader added: “Developers and landowners actually have a vested interest in not building so many houses, because that keeps the price high. We want to change that model and make sure that many, many more houses are built – and that the price comes down.”
He did make an interesting point about building on the Green Belt; and having just heard a discussion of this on the BBC’s Politics Live, it seems clear that a lot of nonsense is talked about this.
Starmer said a discussion was needed on building over the Green Belt, but added that he wanted to end confusion in rules that meant housing was built over a playing field in Maidstone, rather than a car park, because the car park was classified as being in the Green Belt.
To This Writer, the answer is to re-classify the car park so it isn’t in the Green Belt any more (how did it get put into the Green Belt in the first place?) – and then there would be no need to legislate to allow building in the Green Belt at all.
It should be clear to everybody that green land should be preserved, for the good of us all.
Ultimately, this seems yet another attempt by Starmer to cripple his own party’s electoral chances.
Current homeowners won’t support a party that actively campaigns to make them poorer by reducing the value of their houses, and potential homeowners won’t want to be forced to choose between having a new house and taking away everybody’s green space.
If he isn’t intentionally trying to sabotage his party’s chances, then he needs to learn how to do something that should be as natural to a lawyer as breathing: he needs to think before speaking.
Source: House prices will fall under Labour government, says Keir Starmer
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So now Starmer will remove the green policies from the labour manifesto as he claims it’ll build on Green Belt. WTF!!! How is this progressive?
Hi Mike
I don’t normally comment but felt motivated to do so with this hot topic.
Yes, we do need to build more housing, and yes land speculation is working against this need. There are a legion reasons why we need more and inevitably the price will fall, simple economics. I am very keen to preserve the Green Belt as if it isn’t given security we will continue to destroy the natural environment that benefits us all in so many ways.
Having said all this there are two points:
1. Young people are finding it almost impossible to get on the property ladder and the rental sector woke up to this not long ago and prices have shot up as a consequence. Soon enough the house price bubble will burst as there will be no-one but landlords able to buy properties as young people have to rent as the only alternative. Anecdotally, the bizarre scenario of YP paying higher monthly rental payments that are over and above what a mortgage would be is where the focus should be.
2. The price of your ‘castle’ is meaningless, as all prices are relative. If there is greater supply to ease the crisis then there is the clear likelihood of average prices falling, so the next mansion you want to move up to will have also fallen in value.
To help both the Green Belt and the availability of houses YP want to buy, a creative plan to bring back into use the 900k+ empty properties around the UK needs to be developed, some for sale some for (lower) rent.
Starmer the perennial liar, fraud and deceiver can in no way be believed, or trusted. Apart from his plan to destroy green field sites….There are thousands of brownfield sites, and thousands of empty properties, including second or more homes, and homes left empty for investment purposes…
If only there was some way for house prices to recover, rents to become reasonable and not to build on green belt! Perhaps brownfield sites used for social housing?
This can be problematic too, of course. Strict rules about contaminated sites should have to be followed and actually enforced. Recent problems where I live have seen developments being built on sites known to be contaminated without proper remedial action taken..