Responding to the UK's 2021 Budget Michael Voges, Executive Director of ARCO said:
“You can’t help someone buy a house when that house doesn’t exist. Stoking demand through mortgage guarantees and subsidies will not solve our housing crisis and is the equivalent of shovelling yet more cash into the furnace of rising property prices.
“We have a critical lack of housing in this country for younger and older people alike. We urgently need to address this by distributing existing housing more efficiently – expanding good quality housing for older people through planning and regulatory reform would cost the Treasury little, help meet the challenges of an ageing population, and stop prices getting even more unaffordable for younger people.
“Making housing work for different generations is not a zero sum game – and we will all have a better place to live if we focus on supply as well as demand.”
ENDS
