We are in the housing mess we’re in for one reason bigger than all the others put together: Politics.
NOTHING has a bigger impact on the housing market than politics. Nothing else comes close.
Consider the shocking state of our housing industry, spiralling rents, mortgage payments and affordability nightmares.
100% of these situations are a consequence of political decisions.
Think about all the things that affect the housing market that you know of, in no particular order:
Stamp Duty – Political Decision
Planning Laws – Political Decision
Help to Buy (introduction and cancellation) – Political Decision
Housing Shortage – Consequence of Political Decisions MIRAS – (introduction and cancellation) Political Decision
Section 21 – Political Decision
Inheritance laws – Political Decision
Capital Gains tax laws – Political Decision
Banking Regulations (on Lending) – Political Decision
Sales System in England and Wales – Political Decision (not to match Scotland’s superior system)
Tenancy Laws – Political Decision
Eviction Laws – Political Decision
Leasehold Laws – Political Decision
The Bank of England being given control of interest rates: Political decision.
HOUSING IS POLITICS.
I studied politics, and I’m glad I did, because it taught me at a very young age that to blindly support OR oppose ANY political party is always mistake. Because none of them ever has everything right.
ALL parties have some great ideas, and some disastrously bad ideas.
It’s about who can deliver the least bad outcome.
And politics is about policy and execution more than people. I have been an impartial political observer my entire adult life.
I have voted differently in almost every election in my life (4 different parties in the last 5 elections). I vote based on what I think will be the best for the largest number of people, and based on how I would explain my choice to my kids.
Many people choose to opt out of the whole thing, because of how divisive it is and how it can destroy friendships, relationships and families.
Think about what a waste of life that is.
Choosing to opt out is a luxury that, ironically, we only enjoy thanks to the relative success of our political system compared to most of the world. It’s a luxury and a freedom that was hard won.
I’ve chosen housing as my career field. This requires me to keep an open mind, especially in politics.
If you care about the damaging effects of decades of failed housing policy, especially the last 14 years, then I urge you to detach yourself from ANY political ideology (because NO party has a perfect set of housing policies), and instead join me in rising out of the political wrangling, instead looking objectively at what are our least bad options to improve the housing mess.
My (non-political) objective viewpoint, is that the two main parties are so deeply entrenched in the status-quo, so deeply influenced by corporate interests, so openly manipulated by the media that they have both lost their way and become a reactionary laughing stock that deliver close to zero.
That is totally unacceptable.
This is why for the last two years I have been calling for ANYTHING else but more of the same.
I have despaired at the thought of a Labour victory, NOT because I do or don’t have a problem with their policies, but because of the near-certainty (in my view) that they are a disjointed group of amateurs when it comes to functioning as an organisation greater than the sum of its parts.
They probably couldn’t be much worse than the Conservatives in that regard, but they certainly aren’t any better, from what we can tell.
The thought of Rachel Reeves as Chancellor fills me with utter dread. Not because of who she is (I don’t care who she is) but because she lacks the necessary experience of anything on that scale, and is clearly totally unaware of the gravity of the responsibility of that role and what it will mean for the lives of millions of people when she fails at it.
The housing crisis is a direct consequence of the failure of our political system over the last 30 years.
More of the same would be catastrophic.
I don’t see ANY party that’s up to the job, or that has all the policies right. I do not ‘support’ ANY party or person.
But, I am slightly encouraged at the prospect of ANY outcome other than a Labour majority, because it is our ONLY hope of something, anything, actually changing.
So, please, don’t confuse my impartial interest in political events as being in support of any party or any person. I am genuinely excited at the prospect of an unpredictable election result, because the only way out of this housing mess is to go through a political upheaval of some kind, and see what comes out of it.
I don’t like the conduct of most politicians. But I do enjoy watching anyone shake things up.
Politics got shaken up yesterday.
Whoever you are, whoever you support, I assure you that is a good thing for the housing market, because it increases the chances of actual change.