So much for the dream of buying a family home | Letters
Kirsty Major (Meet the young families stuck in their starter homes thanks to the UK housing crisis, 3 January) describes a financialised housing market in which a decade and a half of interest rates close to zero, along with George Osborne’s outrageous help-to-buy policy, pushed prices from a mortgageable three or four times average earnings to more than nine times,It is now one where those with inherited property wealth or the Bank of Mum and Dad (the UK’s sixth largest lender) might compete, but those without mostly cannot,And so the social divide widens,But then Keir Starmer says he will back “the builders not the blockers”, implying that supply will fix affordability,That would need developers to increase it to the point where they had to drop prices and then keep building – and incurring losses – while prices continued to fall.
Obviously they won’t do it.It is deeply concerning that Starmer and Angela Rayner don’t acknowledge that.But help-to-buy debt at least could be written off, because that was a government intervention that saddled buyers with more debt than the banks thought they could afford, in what was a straight price-and-profit-maintenance bung to a development sector donating millions to the Tory party.And, you never know, greater disposable income left by smaller borrowings might then help generate the economic growth that Starmer has promised.John WorrallCromer, Norfolk Kirsty Major’s piece is an overdue indictment of the Thatcher legacy.
The destruction of building societies’ role in maintaining the dream of affordable homes for all working people – by allowing financial institutions to offer mortgages that were not realistically based on people’s ability to pay, but which cynically put buyers into competition with each other to inflate “value” – has loaded people with debt for most of their working lives, for the enrichment of “investors”,The fallacious belief that this would somehow make the UK a “property-owning democracy” was further exacerbated by the enforced sale of council houses at knock-down prices,That the rising price of homes, which seems to be a matter of celebration for media outlets, has nothing to do with their value, but everything to do with their profitability to lenders is an enduring scandal,It’s difficult to reflect that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown did nothing to mitigate this, easy to see how David Cameron and George Osborne made it worse with Brexit and that Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak just didn’t care,Ed BrierleyHumshaugh, Northumberland Kirsty Major’s article includes a quote from Georgina in Yorkshire, who asked why her parents could afford a family home and she cannot now.
One reason that I seldom see mentioned is the change in lending criteria that happened in the last decade of the 20th century.When my wife and I bought our first home in 1985, the maximum mortgage we could obtain was (I think) a multiple of three times the larger earner’s salary plus one multiple of the lower earner.Similar rules were in place for all lenders and this effectively limited house price rises to wage changes over time.At some point those rules were changed, and prices rapidly rose to a level of larger multiples of two salaries, resulting in the problem Georgina is experiencing.Will WrightSandy, Bedfordshire Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
How to make chips without potatoes | Kitchen aide
It’s hard to deny the allure of a big ol’ pile of hot, fat, crisp, salty chips, but with the festive season finally over, now is a time to ring the changes. And if that means swapping your spuds for another veg, so be it. For a good chip alternative, “any fibrous root vegetable that can hold its shape will fry up a treat”, says Alice Zaslavsky, author of Salad for Days, but you don’t necessarily have to fry them: “You can roast them, or you can cook them in an air fryer. As long as there’s enough oil and a high enough temperature, you’re good to go.”Sweet potatoes are the obvious alternative, but they have a higher moisture and sugar content, and have form for turning soggy or just plain burning
Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for tamarind chickpeas with cavolo nero | Quick and easy
Tamarind chickpeas – a little sweet, a little sour – are my absolute favourite, and I never run out of ways to cook them. This version is simply boosted with chilli, cumin and sugar, so there’s no long list of spices, either. Fresh tomatoes and cavolo nero add plant points and interest, while pickled pink onions bring crunch and sharpness. If you want a quick, 30-minute curry, make this with jarred chickpeas; if you’re using tinned, cook them for longer and with more boiling water, because they need more time to soak up the flavours.Scoop this up with flatbreads or, even better, cooked-from-frozen Shana parathas
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for lentil and spinach soup | A kitchen in Rome
Once upon a time in Messina, there lived a boy named Nick who loved to swim. Or so begins the tale of Cola Pesce, told by many, including Italo Calvino in his book of Italian folktales. So great was his love that Nick spent his days and nights in the sea while his mother stood on the shore, pleading: “Oh, Nick, come out of the water, you are not a fish.” He didn’t listen, though, and every day he swam farther out while his desperate mum yelled across the water until it gave her a kink in her intestines. Then, one day, having screamed herself hoarse, she blurted out – as is so often the case in such circumstances – “Nick, may you turn into a fish
Notes on chocolate: the best dark choc for this dark time of year
January is a fine time to experiment with bars of 80% and overSo here we are. Through the other side. Despite my protestations that deep winter is not the time for deprivation, I have several friends on diets and attempted overhauls of their lives. Luckily, none have given up chocolate completely, but some of them are opting for the 80% and over.There is good reason for this: it’s got more health benefits and far less sugar, and if you don’t eat loads of sugar anyway a very high percentage chocolate tastes epic and actually quite sweet
Sunday with Paddy McGuinness: ‘I’m a double carb man’
The radio presenter talks about his meaty Sunday dinners, condiments, trimmings, being spoiled as a child and doing what he’s told as a dadSunday routine? I get up, do the kids’ breakfasts and leave about 9am to do my Radio 2 show. I get there at 10am, the show starts at 11am, so my Sunday doesn’t start properly until 1pm.What happens then? I’ll go straight online and order myself Sunday dinner. Beggars can’t be choosers, so I’ll take whatever meat they’ve got on offer.Trimmings? I’m a double carb man, so mash and roast potatoes, good veg, and a big old Yorkshire pudding absolutely obliterated by gravy
Drinks to help you make the most of dry January
See out damp or dry January without losing the will to live with these low and no alcohol drinksThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Torres Natureo Rosé, Spain NV (from £6, ocado.com; amazon
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