Housing and Regeneration Bill
1:15 pm
Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
I want to take a slightly wider look at the whole question of the intermediate market and low-cost home ownership. You have rightly highlighted the problems facing people who want access to social housing, the shortages and the long waiting lists. You have also highlighted the extent to which people who might like to buy are unable to do so at the moment because of affordability issues. So there is potentially a huge demand for the intermediate market. Why, in your experience, have all the various models that have been tried over the past 20 years—the different low-cost home ownership initiatives—failed to produce something that is popular, successful and taken up on the scale that you might expect, given the demand?