This is an amended version of a letter that appeared in the Evening Standard on 21st August 2013: http://www.iceniprojects.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/We-need-more-than-Help-to-Buy.pdf

Help to Buy is a means to an end; but it is further exposing underlying problems in our ability to deliver the right homes, in the right locations, expeditiously and cost-effectively.

A contractor client of mine recently remarked that the residential side of the construction industry has gone through the roof post-Help to Buy. However, since the credit crunch, not only has the industry lost skilled labour, it has lost the factories and production lines to deliver raw material.  As a consequence, not only is is extremely difficult to acquire what might be regarded as elementary products (facing bricks, breeze blocks etc), basic supply and demand economics is pushing the price up.  Another client was lamenting the fact that the cost of paint required to complete an executive residence has increased since 2008 by 30%.  These pressures will be felt across the housing spectrum, and not simply the top end.