Increase in Supply of Houses Promised

Gordon Brown promises 3 million New Homes will be built by 2020. At the moment the UK has one of the lowest house building rates since the second world war. To increase the rate by 40,000 a year may cost the Chancellor upto £10 billion in social housing costs.

The increase in housing supply is in response to the concerns over difficulties facing the younger generation in getting a foot on the property ladder. The tripling of house prices in the past 12 years, is in large part, due to a chronic shortage of supply.

However, although he has promised an extra 3 million homes building them may not be so easy. Often local councils are keen to protect greenbelt land and avoid extra environmental pollution.

In other news the US dollar fell again in response to concerns over the US housing market. Falling house prices were now feeding through into lower consumer spending. Their are fears that this will soon pass onto Wall Street. Despite a massive increase in home repossesions and mortgage defaults, there is no sign that the Federal reserve are looking to cut interest rates at the moment.

Dollar falls again - Guardian