Government intervention has inflated house prices to unsustainable levels; a crash is now predicted - and those on lowest incomes will suffer. The Conservative ideological obsession with home ownership, and antipathy to social housing, blinds them to the need for a balanced housing market that supports the needs of both the poorest and of business. Help to Buy was exposed in June 2019 by the National Audit Office (NAO) and excoriated on Left Foot Forward. It’s worth repeating some of that analysis again, Around three-fifths of those using Help to Buy could have bought a property without it, over 8,000 of those using the scheme had household incomes over £100,000 and more than 20,000 had incomes over £80,000. 1 in 5 of those using Help to Buy aren’t even first-time buyers. It’s boosted the profits of Britain’s biggest property developers. And of course since then, the scheme has been extended to 31st March next year. The NAO noted then that the government had indicated that it “wil