THE PROPERTY SPECULATION GAME

It’s obviously naïve to think that the recession was caused by dodgy dealings in the sub-prime property market (and all that business of re-packaging toxic debts) so that banks could lend each other shedloads of conceptual dosh and pass it on to us (minus bonuses) to buy and sell houses in order to inflate property prices so that there’s even more non-existent lucre to invest in the sub-prime market and ...... I’ve just imploded.  Anyway, all that’s got to be wrong because Cheshire West and Chester Authority (who must be CWACAs) have just issued a draft policy about getting involved in property speculation.  It’s their Proposed Home Assistance Policy which aims to provide loans or grants for buildings maintenance or improvement to individuals who otherwise couldn’t afford to have the works done.  Nothing wrong with that and it’s the sort of laudable thing we’d all like to see happen in a democratic society.  However, the way CWACAs is going about it is to take equity in said property based on its value relative to the amount of investment.  Sounds reasonable until you read that the ‘Council’ will share the risk of any decrease in property values.  Hang on, don’t they mean that the taxpayer will take the risk and haven’t they seen what’s happening to house prices?  If that’s not enough to stick in your craw, then CWACAs goes on to say that it will not introduce terms which guarantee its (sic.) investment for fear of discouraging applicants.  The way I read it is that they’re actually proposing to guarantee taxpayers a loss.  It can’t work both ways or is it me that’s quackers?.

Not wishing to go on about this, CWACAs says it will use a proportion of ‘its own’ resources to ‘support’ the policy.  Call me old fashioned but I thought the Authority’s job was to manage resources funded from levies raised against the taxpayer on behalf of the taxpayer in accordance with democratic procedures.  Unfortunately, it seems that we do now live in a totalitarian society where the money we earn belongs by right to the state machine and its acolytes.

Theoghinus Nuttors, 14 February 2009.