He warned that the government\u2019s approach had compounded the slowdown. \u201cThe government\u2019s lack of a coordinated growth plan hasn\u2019t helped confidence in the broader economy,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Bank of England has kept rates high longer than expected to control inflation, making mortgages expensive and reducing buyer demand. Government indecision and economic drift are key contributors to the slow housing market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others in the industry share his concern that policy drift is undermining both demand and supply.<\/p>\n
Supply-side strain adds to pressure<\/p>\n
Hemat Natha, director of Mortgage Advice Point, said the same lack of strategy was stifling construction and development. \u201cThey talk about cutting red tape and big infrastructure announcements, but have they cut any red tape out of planning? How are they incentivising developers to build or convert?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
He added that persistent labour shortages were worsening the challenge. \u201cHow are we going to build the homes with increased labour costs?\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re making it difficult for the workers the country needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Natha described a market stuck in neutral. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen any strategies communicated, and is there a strategy, really? The country\u2019s at a standstill at the moment. Businesses are at a standstill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He warned that the government\u2019s approach had compounded the slowdown. \u201cThe government\u2019s lack of a coordinated growth plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[84,467,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-192344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-business","tag-markets","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}