Losing the sky at night

An Englishman's home is his castle or more appropriately his castle of debt.  The value of mortgage debt has risen by 88 per cent since 2002, from £675bn to £1.27tn, according to Halifax (part of Lloyds Banking Group).  Over the same period of time, the value of the UK’s housing stock to reach £4.2tn by the end of 2012.  Telling us that we have housing equity of £2.90tn or a debt to equity ratio of  1 : 3.3 - my thanks to:  


http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/latest-news/uk-mortgage-debt-up-88-since-2002-says-halifax/1065399.article

Just five years since the credit crunch, created in part by a mortgage backed securities bubble, the Chancellor bereft of any other good ideas has teamed up with Nick (Wreaking ball) Boles (Housing Minister) to come up with probably the worst government scheme of the current Parliament.  The plan is for the government to provide home buyers (who can't afford to buy a house) with the deposit they need to get a huge mortgage this will increase UK mortgage debt by a further £60 billion.  This crazy plan to increase national indebtedness is to be supported by a bonfire of planning regulations, which will undoubtedly mean an acrimonious battle with countryside campaigners and therefore the core Tory vote.

Wreaking ball Boles has indicates that the main purpose of a £15.5 billion government package to support home buyers is to create a building boom.  In the Budget, the Chancellor announced that the Government would offer five-year interest-free loans worth up to 20 per cent of the value of new homes costing less than £600,000. The scheme is intended to help 644,000 people buy homes over the next three years.

I have blogegd on the dangers of Mr Boles before -

http://getwd50.blogspot.com/2013/01/our-green-and-pleasant-astroturf.html

Almost all of the building will be on green field sites in the South East of England, where most Tory voters live.  So the net effect of the plan will be another electoral gift to UKIP  and further worries for the UK's Astronomers.

It's already too light at night to see the stars!