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Comment: Leave well alone
Evening Standard06.08.08
Yesterday the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, hinted that he was considering help for the housing market by allowing home buyers to defer paying stamp duty - or scrapping it altogether. Today we report that the green paper on emergency measures for homebuyers and sellers could be far more ambitious. Measures being considered include restoring mortgage tax relief or allowing councils to offer mortgages to families refused a commercial loan or enabling council tenants to use their righttobuy discount by way of a deposit on a new home. It could also mean using the benefit system to pay mortgage interest for homeowners threatened by repossession.
The general principle must be that it is not the business of government to buck the housing market - which, arguably, is undergoing a necessary correction after years of inflated price rises. The dismal condition of Northern Rock should be lesson enough of the dangers of state involvement.
