Do yo think goverments should intevine in the UK housing market?
Are governments helping to resolve market failure? Theories and hypothesis?
Thanks:)

Dear Klb13,

Judging from what government policy has done to housing in the United States, I would think that government policy in the U.K. can't do any good for U.K. housing either.

Here in the United States, Government at all levels imposes building codes, zoning regulations, and environmental land-use restrictions on housing construction. These all add unnecessarily to the cost of housing.

What's more, many of the building codes aren't necessary for their professed purpose of keeping the construction of housing safe, since this could just as easily be done by private insurance company inspections, as it is done in France.

From the 1930s to the 1960s, the U.S. Federal Government had a program called "Urban Renewal." In this program, the government used its powers and forced poor people out of private houses the Government deemed "sub-standard" and demolished the houses, then falsely promised to build better houses. Whole communities were destroyed by this social engineering scheme.

From the late 1960s on with Lyndon B. Johnson's "War On Poverty," the Federal Government also built public housing units for the poor. But because the poor didn't own the homes and weren't given incentive to work towards the ownership of their homes, there was no pride of ownership, units fall into disrepair all the time, and public housing units are magnets for disease and criminals.

The Federal Government also gives Section 8 vouchers to private landlords to keep poor tenets and then the private units quickly turn as bad as the public units. You can usually tell the Section 8 units by their overgrown bushes, broken glass, spray-painted gang symbols, and frequent turnover of apartment managers.

Federal and State Governments also underwrite the insurance of people who build their homes in areas prone to disaster, such as shore lines, flood plains, drought zones, and forests that burn every Summer. By doing so, they punish taxpayers who build more wisely. Also, by encouraging home-building in disaster-prone areas, the Government virtually assures that the next coming natural disaster will be more destructive than the last.

Now, there is a new Federal Government program that President George W. Bush has expressed approval for. This program would bail out all the homeowners and real estate gamblers who foolishly chose to buy homes at adjustable mortgage rates. This, of course, would penalize everyone who mortgaged their homes at fixed rates, as well as punish renters and people who own homes free and clear of debt, not to mention impose onerous restrictions on mortgage and banking companies. The restrictions on morgators and bankers might make them less keen on giving out any mortgages next time.

Take it from a suffering Yank taxpayer from over the pond: Government is a home-wrecker and needs to be kicked out of the housing business.