Housing Secretary Steve Reed has repeatedly stressed on this morning’s media round that the government has ‘ruled out’ imposing a one-year rent freeze. Reed my lips: no rent freeze…
He told Sky News:
“Yeah, I ruled it out in Parliament just a couple of weeks ago… and the reason we’re doing that is the Scottish government tried it… It ended up with one of the biggest increases in rent people have ever seen, and a reduction in the number of homes that are available to rent.”
Which sounds reassuring, but it was also Steve Reed – then Defra Secretary – who was ambushed by Rachel Reeves’ disastrous changes to inheritance tax for farmers at her first Budget. The rent freeze briefing this week came from the Treasury. ‘Fool me once’…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”