CIH slams infatuation with homeownership

The Chartered Institute of Housing said a better balance needed to be found between homeownership and other forms of tenure such as social rented housing.

Sarah Webb, the chief executive of the CIH, said that it was right that the government had included measures to support families in danger of repossession and attempt to stimulate the stagnant housing market through stamp duty tax breaks.

But she added: ‘We must recognise that these measures are a reflection of a failed boom-bust market and the product of a system that only existed on the back of high house price inflation and irresponsible lending.

‘We need a better balance and choice of places to live. The infatuation with homeownership must be tempered. We need to talk less about housing as an investment and housing ladders, and more about ways to address waiting lists, ways to reduce housing as a polluter, and ways to close the gap between the number of homes being built and households being formed.’

She said there need to be a major ‘conceptual change of approach’.

In a statement the CIH added that the £100 million set aside in the Budget for councils house building was ‘symbolically significant’ but that the likely impact on housing supply ‘will be minimal’

It said the general issue of the local authority housing finance system, which is currently under review by the government, ‘remains the major issue to overcome’.

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