HOUSE PRICES IN LONDON rose by 26 per cent in London in the three months to June, according to the latest figures from Nationwide.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “The price of a typical UK house rose by 2.9pc in the second quarter after allowing for seasonal effects. Prices were up 11.5pc compared with the same quarter of 2013.
“Annual house price growth accelerated to 26pc in London, far outpacing the rest of country, and the highest growth rate since the third quarter of 1987. “Prices in the capital are now 30pc above their 2007 peak, with the price of a typical London property now in excess of £400,000.”
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/house-price-index/headlines
Responding to the Nationwide figures Tom Copley, London Assembly Labour group spokesman on housing, said: “With house price inflation in London continuing to dwarfing price rises for the rest of the country, this is further evidence that the capital’s housing bubble continues to grow.
“The disparity between London and the rest of England is now the widest it’s ever been, and shows no sign of narrowing.
“In an interview this week, a Conservative MP in London suggested that people who cannot afford homes in the capital should get ‘on the trains and up to Manchester’.
“Low and middle income Londoners are the people who make this city what it is, and for those struggling to get on the property ladder, these comments are deeply offensive” added Mr Copley,a Labour Londonwide assembly member .
“Instead, people want to see serious leadership on housing in the capital. “Boris Johnson has utterly failed Londoners on housing over the past six years of his Mayoralty.
“A key driver for the soaring property market is the fact that he is currently only building a third of the 62,000 new homes we need in London each year to keep pace with our growing city.”
THE MP who allegedly made the comments that “people who cannot afford homes in the capital should get ‘on the trains and up to Manchester’ is Croydon South MP Sir Richard Ottaway.
Sir Richard told News From Crystal Palace:
“The discussion (on BBC TV’s Sunday Politics show) was set in the context of the mooted HS3 link proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
“He has already given £600M for road and rail infrastructure improvements to improve connections between Northern cities and has now suggested a High Speed rail link between Manchester and Leeds.
“This was be a boost to the Northern hub and promote Manchester as a second commercial hub after London.
“We have a housing shortage in London. “The Mayor has built 70,000 affordable homes since he came into office and there are another 15,000 in the pipeline. “The present government has built more council houses in the last 12 months than the last government did in there 13 years in office.
“The problem is that we have 100,000 immigrants coming into London annually and we still have a housing shortage.
“My suggestion is that over time as the Northern hub takes root, people will find the lower house prices in Manchester and elsewhere in the North, together with jobs and good communications attractive.”
