Help to Buy is worrying but the real problem is inflexible
housing policy   Milton Friedman once observed that, “with some
notable exceptions, businessmen favour free enterprise in
general, but are opposed to it when it comes to themselves.”
With this in mind, if a market intervention is criticised even
within the industries that could benefit from it, it is probably
safe to conclude that it is a really bad idea. Help to Buy, the
scheme of government-backed mortgage guarantees and interest
free loans first announced by George Osborne in this year’s
Budget, falls into this category.  The policy recently attracted
criticism from Pete Redfern, chief executive of the homebuilder
Taylor Wimpey, who argued that Help to Buy could prove a
“genuine hazard”. Yet his company benefits handsomely from the
scheme, and has just announced that orders for its homes have
hit record levels, with Help to Buy driving increased sales
rates. Indeed, the first thing a visitor to the company’s
website will notice is an ad drawing at