The Sunday Times - UK (2022-02-13

26 The Sunday Times February 13, 2022

COMMENT

Andrew became the 11th housing

minister since 2010: hardly a sign that

this is a priority.

The Conservative Party keeps telling

itself a familiar lie, which is that you can

build all the necessary homes where

voters won’t notice them. In his latest

party conference speech Johnson

argued that there was plenty of room to

build — “not on green fields, not just

jammed in the southeast but beautiful

homes on brownfield sites in places

where homes make sense”.

This is not just wrong, but

dangerously wrong. Yes, we should

build on brownfield. No, there isn’t

remotely enough of it. And even if

levelling up is a triumphant success,

you cannot fix years of undersupply in

the south by building in the north, in

the hope that economic activity will

follow. “Places where homes make

sense” tends to mean “places where

voters don’t want them”.

This is why many in the industry are

nervous about the planning rules being

drawn up by Michael Gove. The

levelling-up white paper suggests that

the government sees extra building in

deprived areas as the way to relieve

pressure in the southeast: the exact

opposite of supply and demand. The

scuttlebutt in the housing industry is

that Gove will not only water down

D

uring the first year of the

pandemic something weird

happened. The economy was

cratering. Yet Britain’s

households found themselves

almost £900 billion richer.

Partly that was driven by a

surge in stock markets. But for

most people that extra wealth came

from the soaring value of their home,

which sometimes seemed to be the only

thing growing more quickly than

infection rates.

The result, as we report today, is that

the number of £1 million properties

outside London has sky-rocketed. But in

the process the already cavernous gap

between have-homes and have-nots has

grown even wider. Last year the cost of a

deposit jumped from 102 per cent of

average income to a record 110 per cent.

In London it would take the average

worker more than 15 years to save for a

deposit. And a combination of

pandemic-driven relocation and the

cladding crisis has reduced the number

of properties on the market to an all-

time low — so prices are likely to go

higher still.

This is only the latest chapter in a

slow-motion tragedy. Being able to own

your own home is the essence of the

good life. In a country with a functioning

housing market it should happen almost

by default. But we are woefully,

humiliatingly far from that point. As

recently as 1991, 78 per cent of those

aged 35-44 were owner-occupiers.

Today, the figure is 56 per cent. Among

those aged 25-34, it’s dropped from

67 per cent to 41 per cent.

This crisis is not just poisoning the

dreams of a generation. It has all manner

of toxic side effects. A recent essay on

the Works in Progress website pointed to

a laundry list of problems that are being

exacerbated by housing shortages,

including inequality, wage growth,

innovation, productivity, fertility rates

and obesity.

What is so irritating for those of us

banging our heads against this brick wall

(or, rather, wishing there were more

brick walls to bang our heads against) is

that the problem is easily soluble. Britain

is not cramped or overcrowded, not

even remotely. In England homes take

up just 1.1 per cent of the land, and

gardens a few per cent more. Our cities

are scandalously low rise. A majority of

voters would welcome a large increase in

housebuilding, even in their local area.

But time and again politicians shy

away from the fence. Faced with a

parliamentary mutiny, Boris Johnson

not only ripped up his planning reforms

but fired the minister responsible,

Robert Jenrick. Last week Stuart

to misguided regulation and a wave of

cheap money. In the decade after the

financial crisis they snapped up two

million extra properties — a lot more

than we actually built.

Johnson has championed a solution

proposed by my think tank, the Centre

for Policy Studies: long-term, fixed-rate,

low-deposit mortgages. But the Bank of

England refuses to budge.

Likewise our suggestion of bribing

landlords to sell to tenants was seen as

heretical by the Treasury. And in the

social housing sector councils and

housing associations have successfully

strangled the right to buy.

The collapse of home ownership isn’t

just scarring our society. As I’ve said

before, it represents an existential threat

to the Conservative Party.

If you don’t create new homes, you

don’t create new Tories. Indeed, the

most electorally successful governments

don’t just win elections: they create

more of their own voters.

A Tory party that remains in thrall to

the nimbys is one that doesn’t expand its

voting base but actively constricts it.

Telling northern voters to get on their

bike and look for work didn’t go down

well in the 1980s. Telling southern voters

to get in their cars and look for homes

will go down even worse.

@RColvile

buyers driven by its support schemes.

But new houses are still well short of the

300,000-a-year target, and the surge

relied on pushing 400,000 planning

permissions a year through the system.

Many councils have been sitting on their

hands in the hope that Gove will lower

their quotas. Meanwhile, activity stalls.

The failure to build isn’t just

hammering home ownership. It’s

damaging growth. Last week a group

of big investors wrote to Rishi Sunak

asking for reassurances about the future

of the Oxford-Cambridge arc, intended

to be a major development area. They

pointed out that Oxford and Cambridge

are adding just 300,000 square feet a

year of laboratory space for pharma

research, while the university towns’

American rival Boston has almost six

million square feet under construction.

The investors believe that local

councils’ reluctance to approve

development is a direct threat to the

UK’s ambitions to be a scientific

superpower — and to our future

prosperity. Companies will not choose

the UK if they cannot build facilities and

their staff cannot afford homes.

Home ownership is not just driven by

housebuilding. One of our biggest

problems is that buy-to-let landlords

have found it much easier to get

mortgages than first-time buyers, thanks

This crisis is not

just poisoning

the dreams of a

generation. It has

toxic side effects

Robert Colvile

Stuff the nimbys and build, build, build — the

future of Britain (and the Tories) depends on it

Jenrick’s proposals but slash housing

targets for the south by a third or more.

Those around Gove reject this

analysis. They insist that he remains

committed to housebuilding. His

strategy, they say, is to incentivise

communities to want housing rather

than oppose it. The favoured acronym is

Biden: beautiful homes, with

appropriate infrastructure, under

democratic control, which enhance the

environment and are approved by the

neighbourhood. But to get houses built

you need sticks as well as carrots. The

government points to recent increases in

housebuilding and a surge in first-time

their medieval ways and

hatred of women?

The situation in the country

is a disaster, but it was created

by the Taliban and it is within

their power to correct. They

must show their willingness

to change. I would happily

give as much government aid

as they need, but it must be

on our terms, not theirs.

Julie Parkinson

Haltwhistle, Northumberland

The pandemic has widened the education attainment gap

ALAMY

A life in the

Magazine

It was fascinating to trace my

life through your review of 60

years of The Sunday Times

Magazine (last week), but one

aspect of the supplement not

mentioned was the impact on

us paper-deliverers of the

time. In 12 months our bags

doubled in weight, as other

papers raced to bring out

their own versions. I can still

smell the mixture of wet

canvas and ink, and feel the

pull on my right shoulder.

Derek Kennard, Grimsby

Colours supplement

The review was a happy

reminder of the great help the

Magazine gave me in the

1960s. As signal officer of HM

Yacht Britannia, I had to

ensure that we were carrying

all the necessary standards

and flags when on royal duty.

Early in 1964 we were in

the Caribbean when

numerous colonies were

LETTERS

TO THE EDITOR

The Sunday Times,

1 London Bridge Street,

London SE1 9GF

Email: letters@

sunday-times.co.uk

JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE

brave and resourceful: Jane

Eyre, The Secret Garden and, a

more adult version,

Fingersmith. I don’t get the

fashion for drippy heroines

with alcohol problems and an

unwillingness to rid

themselves of toxic

boyfriends. I read more non-

fiction these days — Diana

Athill is wonderful, as is

Nora Ephron.” Mrs

Chinnery found escape in

books too: “I would

recommend Moon Tiger by

Penelope Lively, and perhaps

even Journey by Moonlight by

Antal Szerb. They do ‘looking

back’ so beautifully.” Helen

Eccles also liked Ephron on

ageing, especially I Feel Bad

about My Neck: And Other

Thoughts on Being a Woman,

“a book that offers something

new on each reading”. Hilary

Lester “first read

Middlemarch at the age of 17.

I’m now 70 and it has been

the answer to all life’s

questions.”

Morten Morland draws as

many appreciative comments

as the columns around his

cartoons. Michael Lumb

loved his latest peek inside

No 10, espying a PM “looking

through Jimmy Carr scripts

for a killer putdown to use at

PMQs”. Richard Carter saw

“Larry and Dilyn composing

their letters to Sir Graham

Brady”. Keith6646

observed: “The front door is

open, ready for a swift exit.”

“BorExit?” — a flash of wit

from Don Giovanni. Hmph.

Wish we’d thought of that.

Rob Nash

Your comments from

thesundaytimes.co.uk

“Bibliotherapy — a wonderful

idea!” That was Another

Voice’s apposite description

of Mariella Frostrup’s new

Magazine column. “Many

years ago,” AV continued,

“during counselling for

depression, the therapist

discovered my love of John

Fowles, so we used The

French Lieutenant’s Woman,

with its different endings, to

explore my inability to make

big decisions. I ended up

becoming a psychologist —

he’d laugh if he knew.” Susan

Baxendale loved the idea

too: “I was orphaned young

and had a difficult childhood,

so I relate to having an

alternative life in my head

through books. I loved ones

in which the heroine looked

adversity in the eye and was

Last week we asked:

Has Boris Johnson been a good prime minister?

From a poll of 47, 177 Times and Sunday Times readers

This week’s question:

Is there too much sex on TV?

Have your say at sundaytimes.co.uk/poll

NO

12% 88%

YES

READERS’ POLL

Playing to the gallery

Perhaps your article “Tate

ditches Sackler name” (News,

last week) was limited by

space. It explained that Tate

was removing the Sackler

name because of the family’s

role in the opioid crisis — but

it seemed to be missing the

line that said it was going to

give the money back too.

Valerie Humphrey

London SE1

Valentine’s day off

The “bizarre new parenting

fad” of Valentine’s gifts for

children (News, last week)

isn’t new at all. A century or

so ago in Norfolk (yes, I

know), it was mainly for the

children: there was a day off

school, tricks and presents

and children would sing the

Valentine Carol for pennies.

Even in the 1950s my

Norwich friends and I were

still given tins of sweets on

February 14.

Antoinette Faulkner, Norwich

Cat’s got my tongue

My cat has instructed me to

reply to Paul Phillips, who

says a cat is a lazy person’s

dog (Letters, last week). We

would like to point out that a

dog is a needy person’s cat.

Kay Bagon (pp Tosca)

Radlett, Hertfordshire

Letters from America

At the risk of sounding as if I

am one-upping, my family

were playing Wordle’s

precursor, Jotto, in the 1950s

(Letters, last week). My

parents brought this game

back from the States, and I

still have the printed pads to

prove it.

Anne Leach

Northwood, London

Asleep on the job

We spend millions on hotel

accommodation for refugees.

You report that we have also

spent £530 million on

Nightingale hospitals with the

wrong type of bed (News, last

week). Could we not provide

this accommodation to the

needy? Or would the cost of

asking our civil servants to

manage this be prohibitive?

Martin Patey, Redhill, Surrey

Heroic handshake

Camilla Long writes

dismissively of a generation

“who thought it was all right

simply to shake hands with

their offspring” (Comment,

last week). My father was a

policeman in London during

the Blitz. He survived its

horrors under a carapace

where self-pity had no place.

When I went away to school

aged eight, he patted me on

the head and said he would

not kiss me any more. It did

not stop me showing overt

affection to my own children,

and some might say that my

father’s sort of Britishness is

much missed.

Tim Blenkin, York

1991 US bombs kill at least

408 civilians near Baghdad

2017 Kim Jong-un’s brother

Jong-nam assassinated at

Kuala Lumpur airport

Robbie Williams is 48 today

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS

ANNIVERSARIES

BIRTHDAYS POINTS

becoming independent and

designing their own national

flags. This included Trinidad

and Jamaica, for which the

admiralty had not yet issued

the specifications; however,

the Magazine (of which we

had a copy) did show them.

With that, our good stock

of bunting and the skills of

our yeoman of signals, Gerry

King, we were able to enter

ports displaying the proper

flags on our mizzen mast.

Captain Nick Kettlewell

Sherborne, Dorset

Dame Vera Baird, victims’

commissioner, 72

Joyce DiDonato, singer, 53

Peter Gabriel, musician, 72

Kim Novak, actress, 89

Rachel Reeves, shadow

chancellor, 43

Prof Sir Simon Schama,

historian, 77

Robbie Williams, singer, 48

It was mad to make

a party animal PM

Max Hastings asks, with

reference to Boris Johnson,

“What was any sane person

thinking, to suppose him an

appropriate person to be our

national leader?” (News, last

week). The answer may be

that we want fallible nitwits

like ourselves in power, so

those who are adulterers,

jokers and incompetents are

at no disadvantage.

Of course, Hastings is right:

granting supreme executive

authority on the basis of who

you would like to chat to at a

disreputable but enjoyable

party is never a good idea.

Stephen Chappell

Upper Colwall, Herefordshire

Leave off

Hastings asks: “What was any

sane person thinking” when

electing Johnson? In the 2019

leadership election I thought

I was choosing not a national

moral exemplar (a role filled

admirably by the Queen) but

an effective politician. I

wanted a PM for whom Brexit

was an opportunity, not a

damage-limitation exercise. I

got what I voted for.

Hastings is entitled to

disagree with the majority of

Conservative Party members,

and with the electorate that

subsequently validated our

choice, but not to question

our sanity.

Colin Podmore, London SE18

Bad beginning

Hastings’s excellent article

reminded me of how Johnson

misled the Queen in advising

her to suspend parliament in

2019. From the start of his
      leadership the writing was on
      the wall. What has happened
      since should come as no
      surprise.
      Chris Hall, Solihull

Who’s in charge?

I find the standards applied to

“Partygate” and the failure to

prosecute Jimmy Savile

confusing.

According to one’s political

persuasion, it seems there is a

difference between the

leader of one large

organisation not knowing

what the staff are doing, and

the leader of another large

organisation not knowing

what the staff are doing.

David Glyn James

Caldy, Wirral

Tank toppling

You report the prime

minister telling his allies that

“they’ll have to send a Panzer

division to get him out” of

Downing Street (News, last

week). Is this why the foreign

secretary was photographed

honing her tank-driving skills

in Estonia in November?

Philippa Wilks

Millhayes, Devon

May I point out ...

Theresa May is displeased

with Johnson’s leadership

(“Revenge of the Maybot”,

News, last week). But it was

she who promoted him to

foreign secretary, knowing

well his hedonistic character.

So who is to blame for this

disaster of a PM?

Tod O’Brien, York

Two of a kind

Johnson’s supporters accuse

Rishi Sunak of “blatantly

plotting” and say that no one

will “ever elect someone so

duplicitous as leader”. Surely

this raises the question: just

how did Johnson become

leader?

Alistair Nicoll, Sheffield

Eton mess

Based upon the performance

of a recent and the present

prime minister, could the

rules for election of future

leaders be amended to

preclude candidates who

attended Eton?

It might save us a lot of

trouble in future.

David Barnett

Tring, Hertfordshire

Readers’ poleaxe

I was interested by your

readers’ poll. If 88 per cent of

Sunday Times readers, whom

I regard as reasonably

sensible and intelligent,

decree that Johnson has been

a bad PM, then it is clearly

time for him to go.

Dr Jim Hay

Menstrie, Clackmannanshire

Old and wealthy?

Pay more tax

How good to read a letter

from a group of millionaires

urging the chancellor to raise

their taxes (Letters, last

week). They are not the only

ones who have got richer

during the pandemic. I am a

75-year-old pensioner who

agrees that those who can

afford it should pay more tax

— rather than, for instance,

receive an extra £350 winter

fuel payment. Older, wealthier

taxpayers should take more

of the fiscal burden that is

falling on the less fortunate.

Tricia Lawrence

Malmesbury, Wiltshire

Donations welcome

Every citizen is free to make

voluntary contributions to

HMRC. I encourage these

“patriotic millionaires” to

lead the way by doing so.

That would be the genuinely

patriotic thing to do.

Andrew Wauchope

London SE11

Market rules

If a self-appointed group of

virtue-signalling millionaires

wish to voluntarily pay more

tax, that is their choice. But

they have no right to demand

increased capital taxes on

everyone else.

David Miller, Chigwell, Essex

We said a Focaldata poll

showed Rishi Sunak had the

best chance of reaching

voters in red wall seats (News,

last week). We have since

been made aware that, while

the poll showed a lead for

Sunak when first and second

preferences for prime

minister were combined, it

showed him behind Boris

Johnson on first preferences

alone. We are happy to make

this clear.

The shipping line MSC has the

capacity to move 4.3 million

20ft containers, not

4.3 billion as we wrongly

stated (Business, last week).

A caption indicated that a

photo showed workers

enjoying a lunchtime drink at

Leadenhall Market, in the

City of London (Business, last

week). In fact the photo was

taken after working hours.

We apologise for the error.

Complaints concerning

inaccuracies in all sections of

The Sunday Times should be

addressed to complaints@

sunday-times.co.uk or

Complaints, The Sunday

Times, 1 London Bridge Street,

London SE1 9GF. In addition,

the Independent Press

Standards Organisation

(Ipso) will examine formal

complaints about editorial

content in UK newspapers

and magazines. Please go to

our website for full details of

how to lodge a complaint.

Private schools

gave right grades

Your article “Private schools

‘gamed’ Covid rules to give

their pupils more top A-

levels” (News, last week) is

untrue and undermines the

results achieved by hard-

working pupils.

Ofqual analysed all results

and said: “Exam boards ...

did not find that any type of

school or college was more

likely than others to have

provided grades that did not

reflect the standard of their

students’ work.”

Every school had to

compile a portfolio of

evidence supporting grading

decisions, and those whose

grade profile was unexpected

were investigated. Very few

schools of any type were

asked to change grades,

because the results were

judged to be fair.

Having endured such

disruption, pupils need to be

able to move forward with

confidence in the grades they

have achieved.

Julie Robinson, chief executive,

Independent Schools Council;

Donna Stevens, chief

executive, Girls’ Schools

Association; Simon Hyde,

general secretary,

Headmasters’ and

Headmistresses’ Conference;

Rudolf Eliott Lockhart, chief

executive, Independent

Schools Association; and four

others

Price of integrity

I am appalled, but not

surprised, by your report on

grade inflation at private

schools. In contrast, at the

Colchester Sixth Form College

we stuck with great integrity

to the principles dictated to

us by Ofqual — that we should

adhere as closely as possible

to grades awarded in the

previous two years.

There is no “levelling-up”

in education — just the

opposite. This abuse of

privilege in education closely

mirrors what is happening in

No 10 right now.

David Huggon, newly retired

head of Spanish at Colchester

SFC, Wivenhoe, Essex

Fair game

The claim that teachers in

independent schools gamed

the system is a disgraceful

slur, and the claim that

candidates from private

schools were favoured is not

borne out by the statistics.

However, it is possible that

independent schools were

fortunate to be able to

minimise learning loss more

effectively during lockdowns.

That is not gaming the

system; it is doing a good job.

Leo Winkley, headmaster

Shrewsbury School

Shrewsbury

Don’t reward the

Taliban for failing

David Miliband is wrong to

suggest that the West should

resume financial support for

Afghanistan (World News, last

week). What were the Taliban

fighting for if not to govern

their own country? Did they

seriously believe the West

would continue to finance

Miliband’s millions

Miliband’s article would have

more credibility if he

addressed the fact that, as

boss of the International

Rescue Committee, he is on a

salary of about $1 million. It

does not look good when a

charity claiming we are not

doing our bit pays its leader

such an excessive amount.

Campbell Dunn

Bishop’s Stortford

Letters should arrive by

midday on Thursday. We may

edit letters, which must be

exclusive to The Sunday Times