Flat footed
YOU would think (but I don't) that ministers might learn. Amid loud cheers, they propose to jam their thumbs into the machinery of the housing market. Previous scars, lacerations and missing thumb-joints they dismiss as coincidence. This time they are going for flats — rewriting the con- tracts between landlords and leaseholders, to the leaseholders' benefit. That is, it would benefit those who have leaseholds now. As usual, it helps the people on the inside looking out, and hurts the people who are on the outside looking in. That is why ministers' thumb-jamming so often achieves the opposite of their stated pur- pose. Rent controls perpetuate housing shortages, mortgage relief inflates house prices to the disadvantage of first-time buyers. The new leasehold reform will make it harder to get a cheap flat, or any sort of flat, as landlords hold them back from the market. The next batch of minis- ters will then wonder what has gone wrong. Stand by with the sticking plaster.
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