Given we are heading into a recession with house prices already at historical peaks, stagnating wages and the Bank of England governor telling people not to ask for wage rises due to the risk of stagflation setting in, setting off a wage-price spiral, the last thing anyone needs is riskier mortgages.
We only need to look back to the 1970s to see that increasing credit at this point is a recipe for disaster. First-time buyers will not be happy if they are in negative equity within 18 months.
The mortgage market does not need a review, nor does the property market. What needs reviewing are Conservative economic policies that have done nothing to benefit most people yet everything to help a minority at the top.
If we want to level up, we must invest in a green new deal. We need to invest in skills and training for our current workforce and in teachers to ensure that children are getting the education to enable them to deal with future challenges they will face
None of the challenges we face now, nor the ones approaching rapidly over the hill, will be fixed by selling off more social housing. Instead, we need more social housing built.
In short, these policy announcements make as much sense as Escher's art: they are incoherent and not based in reality.
Lewis Shaw is a mortgage, protection and equity release adviser at Shaw Financial Services
