UK Government – Help To Buy: https://www.newstatesman.com/business/economics/2013/10/osborne-reveals-true-aim-help-buy-inflate-house-prices

UK Government – Stamp Duty Holiday https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sunak-stamp-duty-economy-house-prices-b1892883.html

UK Government + Bank of England – Covid response, which is now encountering mounting issues with fraudulent payments: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/coronavirus

Bank of England – QE programme: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/quantitative-easing – which has stoked inflation and inequality: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/boe-asset-buying-risks-stoking-inflation-inequality-lords-say and here: https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2021/02/15/what-do-higher-house-prices-mean-for-the-wider-economy/

And there are political and regulatory moves afoot from the UK Government and Bank of England, which will drive house prices even higher – further worsening the housing crisis:

UK Government + Bank of England (PRA) – planning to facilitate greater access to the mortgage market, which will increase mortgage lending and worsen the housing crisis https://www.gbnews.uk/news/boris-johnson-set-to-unlock-cheaper-mortgages-for-millions-in-major-rule-change/277618

Bank of England (FPC) – The bank’s FCP (Financial Policy Committee) may withdraw its affordability test requirements – again, this will increase mortgage lending and worsen the housing crisis. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2022/withdrawal-of-the-fpcs-affordability-test-recommendation and here. https://www.idealhome.co.uk/news/bank-of-england-mortgage-affordability-test-consultation-303283. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/people/financial-policy-committee

Policy moves from the British Government and Bank of England have worsened the housing crisis:
The UK Government’s and Bank of England’s policy moves have increased housing prices, worsening the housing crisis; the Bank of England argues it’s not their job to target house prices, while claiming to: “work to maintain financial stability by protecting and enhancing the resilience of the system as a whole. And we supervise banks and insurers, to ensure that individual firms are run in a safe and sound way.”
Yet inflated house prices threaten financial stability, as experienced during the 2007 financial crisis – so the Bank of England’s remit does require them to control house price rises, where they negatively impact financial stability; and house price bubbles do in fact threaten financial stability.

Indeed, commentators and analysist have been warning about the development of a major housing bubble in the UK, with house prices in London as much as 50% overvalued according to the global ratings agency, S&P Global Ratings: https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2022/3/housing-market-overvalued-across-the-uk-claims-ratings-agency , who also assessed that housing outside London is around 20% overvalued.
The UK Government’s record has also been a litany of failure; in fact, looking at the record of successive government’s vis-à-vis house prices, it is clear that far from countering the housing crisis, government’s instead focus on increasing house prices via policy, thus worsening the housing crisis; something that first became very clear under New Labour, when think tanks proposed utilising rising house prices to plug the hole in public pensions.

The banks are doing very well out of the housing crisis – perhaps that’s the policy goal?
Huge profits are being made by mortgage lenders such as Lloyds and Natwest, due to the rapid increase in mortgage lending, which has driven the house price boom: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/29/lloyds-uk-mortgage-profits-rise-third-quarter-bank and Natwest: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-10526729/NatWest-Group-scores-4bn-profit-mortgage-lending-surge.html.

So, perhaps driving profits at private banks and other lenders if the main policy goal here? With the profitability of the banks and other lenders taking priority over financial stability and the welfare of society as a whole? https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/uk-millennials-age-generation-divide-jobs-youth-employment

Alongside this increase in lending, it is clear the banks are doing everything they can to push lending ever-further; there are also mounting concerns about the risks posed by mortgages extending ever further into retirement, which have been further amplified by the UK’s recent reform of its pensions system, enabling those with private pensions to draw them down early https://www.ii.co.uk/analysis-commentary/worrying-rise-40-year-mortgages-ii522096.

Sadly, we were unable to secure a meaningful response when we enquired to see whether the Bank of England’s internal risk analysis and mortgage lending guidance had been updated to take into account the impact of the aforementioned pension reforms.

A litany of political failure…Britain’s politicians turn housing into a commodity.
Britain’s politicians have facilitated the turning of housing in a commodity – an investment asset; and to deflect us from this reality by arguing the key issue driving the housing crisis is the lack of supply of new housing, which sounds logical to the voting public, yet isn’t grounded in economic reality, as outlined here on our blog by Steve Keen, and also by this report: https://housingevidence.ac.uk/publications/tackling-the-uk-housing-crisis-is-supply-the-answer/ from The UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), researched and written by Ian Mulheirn.

Or perhaps that’s the idea… by stressing the need to hit some phantom number of new homes in turns of new build supply, lets our political class off the hook, while deflecting our attention from the core fact that the politicians and regulators have driven the housing crisis to new extremes via policy.