House price boom 'causing misery'
The house price boom of recent years has brought "misery" to thousands of people and represents a "failure" of policy, a leading economist has argued.
Roger Bootle, managing director of Capital Economics, told a property conference that the lack of new housing being built was the critical problem.
Ministers had failed to secure more land for housing development, he said.
But a leading civil servant said the government was "taking action" to provide more land for building.
'Gimmicks'
Annual house price inflation in England and Wales has slowed in recent months, the Land Registry confirmed earlier this month, following a series of interest rate rises in 2007.
But house prices in London are still rising 15% year on year.
Mr Bootle said the "extraordinary" rate of house price growth seen in recent years had had damaging effects for the economy and household finances.
"Most people see the UK housing market as a story of great success," he told an industry event in Wales.
"I don't. On the contrary, I see it as one of the UK's most unbridled failures."
The root of the problem was the lack of land being made available for new building, he said.
"I wish the government would forget all the gimmicks - affordable housing, key workers and the like," he added.
"The central issue is quite clear - it is getting to grips with the availability of land for building and ensuring that the rate of building moves up quite sharply after that."
Policy priority
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made closing the affordability gap for many aspiring homebuyers a key policy priority.
He has increased the target for new housebuilding to three million homes by 2020.
Responding to Mr Bootle's comments, a senior official from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), acknowledged housebuilding had to keep pace with the rising number of households being created.
"We will, and are, taking action to deliver more land through the planning system and recognise just how important that is," said Richard McCarthy, the DCLG's director general of programmes, policy and innovation.
Source: bbc.co.uk
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