Ben Wilkinson Personal Account

To solve the housing crisis, we should give baby boomers a tax cut when they downsize

George Osborne’s Help to Buy Scheme gave thousands the footing they needed to get on the property ladder. The flagship housing policy also pumped up house price growth, drove up the profits of housing developers and is now making the Treasury a tidy sum.

But in our special report today on the front page and continued below, academics spell out exactly why the once hailed house buying policy is now having “appalling” consequences for many of those who used it. So many were lured into buying homes with cheap money, but there was no thought or foresight for what was to come – the inevitable return of higher interest rates.

Now, as more and more of the Government’s five-year interest- free equity loans expire, young homeowners are facing sky-high rates on not one, but two loans.

Many are trapped in shoddy homes they paid over the odds for and face the very real threat of negative equity.

Buyers were lumbered with all the risk while developers took all the rewards. I’ve written before about how the Tories need to get feet on the property ladder to give the under-40s a reason to vote for them.

However, so far their housing policies have done little to address crucial supply issues.

And there was little hope for firsttime buyers at this week’s Conservative Party conference, with one former housing minister calling the lack of plan or policy “embarrassing”.

Undoubtedly there will be a soundbite policy scrambled together just in time for the Autumn Statement next month, but ministers will have to do more than throw cash at developers to build more homes. Britain does not just have trouble getting people on the property ladder, but also getting them off.

Baby boomers are often blamed for the housing crisis, with many living in properties with more bedrooms than they require.

But their reluctance to move out of long-loved family homes is no wonder, ‘We told last week how residents in one retirement home were charged £90 to change a light bulb’ especially once you consider the pitfalls for those who pluck up the courage to move.

Telegraph Money has reported extensively on the retirement homes disaster, with equity-rich downsizers charged extortionate prices for properties that plummet in value due to onerous service costs that continue long after you die.

We reported last week how residents in one retirement home were charged £90 to change a light bulb. It makes no sense for older homeowners to downsize when there is so much risk and cost involved. If ministers really wanted to fix the housing crisis, downsizers should be spared stamp duty and provided with decent and reasonably priced housing – and stronger protections.

Axing stamp duty for downsizers alone would free up family homes for young families – a much more conservative way to tackle the housing crisis.

As it stands, many of us are ripped off getting on the property ladder, and the vultures are waiting for us when we are ready to get off.