Housebuilders have bemoaned an interim report produced by Sir James Crosby, former chairman of HBOS, and the Treasury, which said lenders’ capacity to make new mortgage advances was “severely contained”.
They were disappointed Sir James poured cold water on a government guarantee for new mortgage-backed securities and a lack of clear prescriptions.
The housebuilders united with banks and building societies to call for urgent action to end mortgage misery.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) criticised Sir James’s failure to propose any immediate changes and warned home owners there would be “little early relief for the housing market”.
RICS also said Bank of England figures showing the number of mortgage approvals for those moving home fell from 41,000 in May to 36,000 last month demonstrated in “the clearest possible way” the consequences of the credit crunch for the residential property market.
The June figure was a third of that recorded in the same month last year and the last since comparable data were first published in 1993.
The Guardian’s leader column says the credit crunch has ensured that prime minister Gordon Brown’s high hopes for housebuilding up until 2020 are now “so much dust”. It says the housing market could define his leadership more than any other area of policy.
30/07/08 Financial Times 3, 10, 14
Times 23, 34, 35, 36
Daily Telegraph 8, 19, B4
Guardian 4, 23, 25, 30
Independent 27, 35, 36, 37
