The housing minister, Margaret Beckett, claims there are signs of an “upturn” in the property market despite official figures showing prices plummeting at an unprecedented rate.

 

She disclosed the government was already worrying about the next housing boom, and was intervening to ensure any recovery in prices does not squeeze people out of the market.

 

Her startling comments echo claims by Baroness Vadera, the business minister and close ally of Gordon Brown, who was ridiculed last week for claiming she could see the “green shoots” of economic recovery.

 

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Beckett declared that there are “indications” of an “upturn” in interest in buying property despite the continuing slump in prices.

 

Although Beckett emphasised that the signs of recovery were “quite recent and anecdotal”, she made clear that they were being taken seriously by the government. “We’re hearing indications of certainly a maintenance of customer interest, possibly even a bit of a pickup.”

 

She said she had heard evidence of recovery from some estate agents, and questioned why banks were not reacting to signs of revival of the market.

 

“Some people have been saying the appetite to buy has gone through the floor, but clearly we’ve had this anecdotal evidence of a bit of an upturn in interest.”

 

Her optimistic predictions come on the eve of a grim forecast from the heavyweight Ernst & Young Item Club, warning that 2009 will see the biggest peacetime downturn in the economy since 1931. It predicts a 16% fall in house prices this year and a further 6% drop in 2010. “ The housing market remains in dire straits, starved of mortgage finance,” said Professor Peter Spencer, Item's economic adviser. “Although bargain hunters are active, there seems little reason to buy until house prices stop falling. We do not see that happening until the end of 2010.”

 

Beckett’s comments were ridiculed by opposition politicians this weekend. Grant Shapps, the shadow housing secretary, said: “The government has lost all touch with reality. Experts say 75,000 families may be evicted from their homes this year, yet the housing minister actually seems to believe that life is getting better.”

 

Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, accused Beckett of “psychological games”. “There is not a shred of evidence to suggest this is happening. All the evidence I have seen suggests we are just in the early stages of a big, painful correction.” Beckett’s optimism is believed to be based on a survey last week by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which said the number of new buyers registering with estate agents had risen to its highest level since 2006.

However, RICS also said the number of house sales per agent had dropped to its lowest level since the survey began in 1978, and that lack of mortgage finance was strangling the market.

 

Beckett said there was “considerable pent-up and growing demand” for houses, and warned of an “inflationary bottleneck” unless house-building continues apace.

 

“That’s the last thing we need . . . I’m sure a lot of people are thinking that one of the outcomes of these [economic] problems is that there will be lower-cost housing available. Well, not for long there won’t be, if the minute mortgage lending picks up, and the minute interest picks up, there’s nothing coming along to satisfy it,” she said.

She urged first-time buyers keen to get on the housing ladder to start researching their options now, predicting a “mad rush” when the economy picks up.

 

Before the recession, Gordon Brown pledged to build 3m new homes by 2020 to meet housing shortages across the UK. Beckett said it was a “tragedy” that the recession had struck just as the government was making progress to meet demand for new homes, and insisted there should be no let up in the building programme.

 

Source: Sunday Times

 

With Beckett and Baroness Vadera (green shoots comments),does it prove that this Government live in a different reality to the rest of us?

 

I think the "credit crunch" is overated, when I was flying out to Bangkok from Heathrow the plane was about 80-90% full, my hotel out there was full of middle aged Brits and the flight back to the UK was pretty packed, a week in Bangkok with flights and hotel is around a grand so there is a lot of money in the UK economy still and it is being spent

I think the "credit crunch" is overated

 

Are you nuts....? Are you not seeing the facts that thousands are losing jobs and big retail outlets are going to the wall.....? Also, have you not noticed that Easy Jet and Ryanair have actually cut down quite a lot of their flights as my mum was telling me when she went over to Holland to visit my auntie and uncle over the Christmas period....? I guess it hasn't occurred to you that obviously if there are less flights, the planes that DO fly are still gonna be fairly packed, air companies aren't gonna run half-full planes are they.....? :rolleyes:

 

People are, in their usual sheep-like way, doing what the govt tells them - "spend your way out of the recession", (which is basically Broon and Darling's policy)...... Like there's no tomorrow.....

 

The ONLY thing that has prevented another Great Depression has been the multi-billion 'bail out' plans and part-nationalisations, which didn't occur in the 1930s because they probably wouldn't have been able to actually do it back then.....

 

Let's not pretend otherwise or start saying that all is "happy happy joy joy"....

i think FOR SOME the current recession has had no impact whatsoever.... i for one ATM have not been touched.

For sure this recession has been hugely hyped by the media

 

Yes many of the already struggling industries are crumbling but I think that was happening anyway - Britain's manufacturing industries were going anyways this just seems to have been the final straw. I'm sure it will get worse but Britain is a very rich country that I believe will be able to make it through this crisis because we still have a lot of people with large disposable incomes.

i for one ATM have not been touched.

 

You'd be a lot more than "touched" if it wasn't for the bail out mate, so stop being so bloody complacent about this sh!t and wake up to the fact..... <_<

 

Posts like this and the one just after are, for me the whole problem with this issue, people sitting back thinking "oh, well, it's not MY problem, nothing's effecting me too much, tough titty on you guys working for Woolies, MFI, Zavvi and Adams, I'm alright Jack"... Which is why I think in a way, the bail out shouldn't have happened, then complacent gits MIGHT have just woken up to the fact that something serious is actually going on because it would be affecting them in a tangible way....

 

Make no mistake, no bail-out = EVERYONE being fukked up the ass, big time....

 

You'd be a lot more than "touched" if it wasn't for the bail out mate, so stop being so bloody complacent about this sh!t and wake up to the fact..... <_<

 

Posts like this and the one just after are, for me the whole problem with this issue, people sitting back thinking "oh, well, it's not MY problem, nothing's effecting me too much, tough titty on you guys working for Woolies, MFI, Zavvi and Adams, I'm alright Jack"... Which is why I think in a way, the bail out shouldn't have happened, then complacent gits MIGHT have just woken up to the fact that something serious is actually going on because it would be affecting them in a tangible way....

 

Make no mistake, no bail-out = EVERYONE being fukked up the ass, big time....

 

so the bail out was a good thing?.... because if i remember correctly you were against it!... which is madness!

 

we all have to ride the storm according to our position in life.... atm im unaffected, and guys who have lost their jobs ARE effected... but wtf can I do about it? give them my money in sympathy? make myself redundant?...

we all have to ride the storm according to our position in life.... atm im unaffected, and guys who have lost their jobs ARE effected... but wtf can I do about it? give them my money in sympathy? make myself redundant?...

 

Of course no-one is asking you to give them your money, unless youre feeling overtly generous....please send some my way :D

 

But if you believe we are not heading for a serious recession, much worse than 91/92 then you are in denial. Of course there will be winners and losers in tough times, thats the law of the jungle.

 

But look at the facts. Most (not all) of the jobs going are highly paid City of London jobs(not much sympathy there), high skilled manufacturing jobs in Industry who earn above the national average.......................and the only new jobs are at Asda,Morrisons, Tesco & Subway.....can you see a trend here.....low skilled low paid, usually part time. Great if you want to be a cheque out operator or a shelf stacker, not much help to high skilled house builders, car makers etc etc.

I haven't been affected to much really, my employer, Morrisons, are taking on 4000 new staff. And i'm a student, so my money is tight as it is.

 

If it continues to get worse at the rate it's going, i'm going to struggle to get my job back when i return from Aus. Although, i should be ranked above the other applicants because of my past encounters with the store :lol:

 

The pound bouncing about is starting to p*** me off.

 

it was upto 2.2 AUD per £1 and then rbs decided to announce huge losses <_< bye-bye nice exchange rate.

 

It's taken about a week to recover....

so the bail out was a good thing?.... because if i remember correctly you were against it!... which is madness!

 

You cant possibly deny there is very MUCH bad that has gone with it though, and complacency and greed of certain individuals is part of it.... There should certainly have been tighter controls on HOW the money is being used for a start, then you'd be able to stop things like these little bankers giving themselves totally undeserved bonuses..... We should be going back to a more 'old skool' form of banking IMO, the banks are not playing with their own money anymore, and they're just not respecting that... It's the arrogance of the banking sector that makes me against the bail out, even if it is deemed necessary.... The way the bail out has been administered is just all wrong imo, and what makes me even madder is Broon and Darling just washing their hands of it, and saying sh!te like "well, it's a matter for the banks", NO, IT BLOODY WELL IS NOT WHEN THEY ARE USING MY FUKKIN' MONEY!!!!!!!!!! <_<