LONDON - The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott has come down heavily on the cost of buying houses in Britain and said that unless people were already on the real estate market, they would find it tough to buy a decent house in the country. He was speaking on the occasion of announcing the nine winners who had won the right to submit designs to build his £60,000 homes.
The Deputy Prime Minister chose nine building consortiums to build the two-bedroom developments, which are touted as the most affordable houses for first-time buyers. "I think everybody thinks they are too high, unless you have bought one, and that's one of the problems of this present stage," Mr. Prescott said about the cost of homes in Britain. The £60,000 home project is going to build around a thousand ultra-cheap homes "made from timber, steel, glass and brick and guaranteed to last 100 years." Asked as to what he considered as the ideal price for a home Prescott replied, "I would love to sell a £60,000 house. Wouldn't you like to buy one at £60,000?"
Dismissing criticism, especially from the Tories about the project, Mr. Prescott challenged, "Unless you have some other arrangement, and we have shown a way forward. But I generally recognize, unless we lift the amount of houses in supply, we are not likely to reduce greatly that increase in prices in housing, which even now is two or three times people's yearly earnings." The Conservative spokeswoman Caroline Spelman said that the £60,000 was from construction alone and that there would be more costs afterward.
"The grim reality is that the homes are in less than desirable locations - such as next door to mines, prisons and landfill - and are all on contaminated land. The sale prices will be six-figure sums each, and only a mere 300 homes will be affordable," she said.
However, Mr. Prescott appeared surprised by these allegations and said, "The pressure was on me to build more and more on brownfield sites. And we have now reached a record level of 70%." The nine finalists announced by John Prescott will now have to submit their designs and one among them will be chosen to build the homes.
Posted
on : Wed, 10 Aug 2005 14:05 GMT | Mortgages News
By : Paula Jenkins
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