Johnson Talks Up Low-Deposit Mortgages, Right-To-Buy In Blackpool Speech

Earlier this afternoon Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered a major policy speech towards the end of a week that nearly saw him removed from office by his own MPs. The speech focused on a number of areas, including mortgages, right-to-buy housing association housing, childcare, and taxation.

• Johnson sought to identify global market forces exacerbated by the war in Ukraine as the contributor to rising inflationary pressures on households, stating that "Markets have responded with a significant spike in prices, partly driven by sanctions, partly by the elevated risk premium, the inevitable increase in what businesses have to charge to compensate for raised global levels of uncertainty.The price of oil and gas looks likely to remain high for a while to come, and the same goes for grain and feed and fertiliser." Johnson added that it would be "repugnant" to abandon Ukraine in the hope that prices might moderate.
• On taxation, states that the current high levels of personal taxation are "an aberration" partly engendered by the pandemic. Did not go into any detail on potential income tax cuts, which had been speculated beforehand. Says UK should cut tariffs on food imports for those goods UK does not produce e.g. bananas and Turkish olive oil.
• Says "We want to make it easier to get a mortgage". Says that too few houses are being built, wants a review of the market to ensure a good supply of low deposit mortgages, wants to extend right-to-buy to housing association housing (2.5mn homes), not just council houses (1.6mn), and allow benefits to cover mortgage payments.