UK PM hastens contentious housing plan
Britain™s Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has in a surprise move launched a contentious mortgage guarantee program, feared to spark a housing bubble.
Ahead of the three-day Conservative annual conference this week, Cameron said on Saturday that the œHelp to Buy” plan will be launched in a few days, three months earlier than expected.
The program is designed to make it easier for people, who have been unable to buy homes because of large deposits needed to secure mortgages, to get a mortgage.
Based on the plan, the government will provide £12 billion in guarantees to lenders to encourage them to give mortgages of up to 95 percent of the value of the properties being bought.
œSo we’re going to launch the Help To Buy Scheme – it’s not coming in next year, it’s coming in next week, because I’m passionate about helping people who want to own their own flat or home,” Cameron said in a statement.
The Help to Buy program was earlier set to be launched in January.
Cameron™s move is seen as an attempt to use the occasion of Conservative annual conference to woo voters at a time when polls show the party is lagging far behind its main political rival, the Labour party, in terms of public support.
The move, critics say can increase house prices, is also seen as a response to Labour leader Ed Miliband™s recent announcement that his party will freeze energy bills for 20 months if elected to office in the 2015 general elections.
The announcement at a time when the British public are struggling against falling living standards further improved Labour™s standing in the polls.
A YouGov study showed on Sunday that Labour™s support currently stands at 42 percent with Conservatives at 31 percent and their coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, at 9 percent.
AMR/HE
Copyright: Press TV
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