Ok, the BoE were not the quickest off the mark to crank interest rates upwards in 2021/22 when the early warning signs of inflation were apparent, as demand rapidly picked up unexpectedly after Covid. But I think it is folly to increase them this week without giving the last thirteen increases a chance to make their full effect felt.

Fixed rate mortgages were first offered in 1989, in the middle of the then recession, and they have become very popular ever since. Particularly as interest rates had rock bottomed in 2020.

This effectively means that the effect of high interest rates will be less immediate and will probably take 12-18 months to fulfil their efficacy.

Relentlessly increasing them before this has had a chance to work, is like double dosing a patient with medicine that could exacerbate the harm done from the ailment.

Me thinks that the committee of the BoE have a twitchy finger on the tiller of the ‘good ship, UK Economy’ and maybe a more sanguine approach to the outlook would be well advised.

Undoubtedly, we are going to see more and more casualties that emanate from the effect of the credit crunch, and this will continue unabated until inflation and rates come down over the next few years.

Already, the direction of movement of the inflation rate is southwards albeit a little too slowly for some observers however, I think that time, the great healer, needs to play its part before we become too ‘trigger happy’.

The lenders are trotting out some interesting fixed rate mortgages which anticipate the downward trend in interest rates in a year or twos time and this will take the pressure off house owners and buy-to-let landlords, who are struggling at the moment with a high cost of borrowing not assisted by the cost-of-living crisis.

I personally, don’t believe that there will be a cataclysmic drop in values of residential property, as I think that they will probably ease by 5-10% over the next year to eighteen months, but not more than this.

What may underpin the market is a noticeable and persistent limited supply of properties available to buy, which should certainly serve to stabilise values.

Prior to any recession, in the past, there has been a noticeable increase in homes for sale accompanied by shrinking demand, and that is where values have subsequently fallen, precipitously. There are no signs of this trend at the moment.

The middle classes are considering selling their homes before the full negative effect of a change of government next year is felt, as they don’t want to be trampled in the stampede which could take place if the electoral polls continue to point towards a Labour Party victory in 2024.

Just what are they putting in the taps at Wasteminster?

It seems that those in charge of housing policy need a nice, secure room, padded, for their own safety. As you know from these columns, the government’s approach to Britain’s housing crisis is schizoid, at best.

This week has been a proper corker.

First, our esteemed Prime Minister vows to lay off planning reforms, in a desperate bid to placate the ‘revolting’ back bench MPs and nimbyists. This is despite his promise to build a million homes by the middle of the decade, what a lovely soundbite, but still a fanciful aspiration at best.

Then Mr. Gove bursts onto centre stage and pulls a sparkling urban regeneration scheme for 20 cities out of a hat. Is this real or are we at Billy Smarts Circus?

No wonder we’re confused.

Gove’s ambitious plans for 50,000 homes in Cambridge were unveiled and immediately proclaimed “dead on arrival” by Andrew Browne, MP for South Cambridgeshire. The latter’s concern is that Cambridge will run out of water.  When will the ‘ludniks’ of the various water companies around the country at last organise a ‘water grid’ along the lines of the electricity supply arrangements, so that there will be proper distribution of water across the country instead of the present, parlous, system, where one county is like the Sahara and the other a monsoon?

He will need all the help he can get to avert an inter-party civil war.

More worryingly, the recent by-elections have shown the direction of travel of the electorate, and it appears that it’s moving away from ‘Toryville’, even though Sir Kier’s ‘Motley Crew’ could be even worse for the country.

I think that the duo of Sunak and Hunt need to change their appetite palette from mild Korma to ring burner Vindaloo, since their present timid approach to urgent government reforms is far too ‘librarianesque’ and needs to be ‘kicked up a notch or twelve’!

The festering lack of housing issue, asphyxiating regulations (as a legacy of the EU), and the intractable problems of burgeoning immigration, quite apart from hyperinflation and the cost-of-living crisis, will not be solved by timidity and restrained political correctness.

At this juncture, teetering on the edge of the political abyss, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You would need an electron microscope to try to find the hallelujah moment of the last four years of Tory rule, apart from the undoubted vaccine success.

Whatever you think about ‘Bumbling Boris’, his shambolic, rock-star persona was electorally very effective and as such, a good deal of Tory MPs can thank him for their present jobs.  Should loss of short-term memory deny them the truth, whatever his shortcomings may have been (and there were many), you cannot deny this undoubted record; two mayoral elections in lefty London, the Brexit vote, Leader of the Party, the Prime Minister’s job, a landslide victory in 2019 and even the Uxbridge by-election result which demonstrated that his following lingers beyond his political demise and is still tinged with stardust.

Admittedly, the ill-fated timing of the ULEZ policy by the hapless London mayor, greatly contributed to Tory success, but even so, Boris’s legacy in the constituency is tangible and real. No other politician would have such a collection of local ‘Only Fans’. Although Sunak and Hunt may be perfectly competent, their charisma bypass of plain vanilla is not going to excite the blue and red wall voters of the next Election.

If the Tories don’t awake from their sleepwalk then, by default, the lackluster opposition are going to be handed the ultimate, underserved, electoral prize. Effectively it will be Dad’s Army trying to defeat a German precision, well-armed battalion of troops.

It’s quite an achievement to make the dull-as-dishwater Sir Keir Starmer look like a winner by comparison, but I do hope that Mr. Gove succeeds with this housing initiative. Yes, he’s Johnson’s nemesis, but he’s an unstoppable force of nature and will make things happen if he is allowed.

Let’s encourage this measure since the sooner the housing problem is addressed, the better off we will all be.