Fact Check: would Brexit help or hinder young people who want to buy a house?

The author argues that the ability of young people to get on the housing ladder has almost nothing to do with whether or not the United Kingdom is a member of the EU. By using the issue of housing in the EU referendum campaign, both the Leave and Remain sides are missing the point.

The lack of supply of housing is the key issue and this is a problem entirely made in Britain. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the European Union because the policies which restrict house building (planning, local government finance, for example) are specifically national, even local.

Kenneth Gibb, Professor of housing economics, University of Glasgow, who reviews the article by Paul Cheshire, makes an additional point: London is where the pressure is greatest but it is a world city and, uniquely for the UK, is subject to and distorted by, large-scale international speculative investment: another area that government has not acted on.

• Primary Source

ESO: In Focus: Brexit - The United Kingdom and the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/brexit-the-united-kingdom-and-the-european-union/

ESO: Background information: Why mortgage rates will rise with Brexit http://www.europeansources.info/record/why-mortgage-rates-will-rise-with-brexit/

The Guardian, 14.06.16: Housebuilder says leaving EU would harm British construction https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/14/housebuilder-leaving-eu-construction-stephen-stone-crest-nicholson-brexit

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