Labour’s modest reheat of help to buy is worth a try | Nils Pratley
Turning to George Osborne’s playbook may look awkward, but cutting deposits to 2.5% could jolt a housebuilding sector stuck in a funk
There may be three reasons why the Labour government has hesitated until now to reheat the Tories’ decade-long help-to-buy scheme. First, the inflationary risks of throwing subsidies at the housing market at a moment when wider inflation, driven by energy prices and the Iran war, is on the march.
Second, the political awkwardness of turning to George Osborne’s playbook. Third, the spectre of Jeff Fairburn, the shameless former boss of Persimmon who bagged a £75m bonus in 2018 as help to buy turbo-charged the value of his share-based incentives. The government would look foolish if, in its desperation to meet its housebuilding targets (or just miss them by a smaller margin), it created more Fairburns.
