Asset Allocator's Soapbox: OPM's Yousefian on housing sector

As if the threat of unemployment were not bad enough, Mr Osborne’s austerity measures, specifically the cutback in the affordable housing budget, could hasten already declining house prices. A revised target has been set for the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) of 155,000 new ‘affordable’ homes to be built over the next four years. This is a big reduction, considering that the previous target was 155,000 over three years to March 2011. The HCA’s budget has also been slashed from some £8.4bn for the previous three years to just £ 4.4bn for the next four. The HCA is supposed to make u...