評論
打印
Housing
樓市
Modest plans
溫和戰(zhàn)略
The government goes back into housebuilding
政府重回地產建設
WHEN George Osborne is spotted outsideWestminster, he is very often making an appearance on a building site, wearing a fluorescent safety jacket. It was no surprise to hear him claim once again, in his budget speech on March 19th, that “We're gettingBritainbuilding”. Sadly, given the huge extent ofBritain's housing shortage, the chancellor's proposed interventions do not add up to much.
當財政大臣喬治·奧斯本不在威斯特敏斯特宮（英國議會所在地）時，他經(jīng)常穿著熒光安全服出現(xiàn)在某個建筑工地上。在他3月19日發(fā)布的預算報告中，聽到其再次宣布“我們正在振興英國”這番言論并不令人驚訝。可惜的是，由于英國巨大的樓市缺口，奧斯本提議的政府干預收效甚微。
The biggest announcement was that the government will extend Help to Buy, a scheme that guarantees mortgages for people purchasing newly built homes. Mr Osborne also hopes to build a new town at Ebbsfleet, a patch of post-industrial land in the Thames estuary, and promises to speed up the redevelopment of several rotting 1960s and 1970s social housing estates inLondon.
報告中最重要的一份公告是政府計劃延長“購房支持計劃”，一項為新屋購房者提供的住房抵押貸款政府擔保政策。奧斯本同時還希望在埃貝斯福利特市建造一個新城鎮(zhèn)，該市位于泰晤士河口，是一小片后工業(yè)用地，奧斯本還承諾加速重新開發(fā)幾個倫敦上世紀六七十年代爛尾的社會住宅小區(qū)。
By making it easier for housebuilders to shift their stock, Help to Buy has probably helped boost building slightly, especially in northern cities where construction had all but ceased. Extending the programme will boostBritain's housing stock by 120,000 by 2020, the Treasury claims, though it will also expose taxpayers to any future house-price crash. Mr Osborne also announced a new fund to support lending to small housebuilders—who have struggled to get financing in recent years—which ought to have a similar effect.
通過使住建商更容易賣出存量房，購房支持計劃很有可能會對刺激樓市略有作用，尤其是在建造工程全部停止的北部城市而言。財政部表示，到2020年，延長購房支持計劃預計能為英國新增12萬套新房供給，雖然納稅人會有承擔未來房價崩盤的風險。奧斯本還宣布新增一項政府資金用以支持小微住建商，這類住建商近年苦于不能獲得融資，這項政策與前者有異曲同工之妙。
The new town is more adventurous. Ebbsfleet, where a high-speed rail link toLondonopened in 2007, has had plans for new homes for almost 20 years. Few have been built, mostly because the site is a partially flooded quarry with little in the way of shops, public transport or infrastructure. The government's new idea is to create a development corporation with control over planning and the ability to borrow to clean up and prepare the site. That was how post-war new towns such as Milton Keynes andStevenagewere built.
新建城鎮(zhèn)得方案更為大膽。2007年，一條連接埃貝斯福利特市與倫敦的高鐵線路開通了，該市新增住房的計劃已有將近20年，但卻幾乎毫無所成，大部分原因是這個部分積水地區(qū)曾經(jīng)是個采石場，幾乎沒有地方給超市、公共運輸設施或者公共基礎設施用以建設。政府新出臺的政策旨在創(chuàng)建開發(fā)公司控制規(guī)劃，以及貸款能力來清理該地做好準備。這就是戰(zhàn)后新城------米爾頓凱恩斯和斯蒂夫尼奇建成之法。
A similar interventionism is visible in the plan to rebuild 1960s estates. Many of these, such as the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark and Robin Hood Gardens in Tower Hamlets, are crumbling. By increasing the density on the sites, and using the proceeds of selling the extra houses built, it ought to be possible to cover the cost of reconstruction. But councils have been short of money to do much themselves, and private developers extract high returns in exchange for putting up capital. With central-government money, those projects ought to move quicker and councils ought to get more for their land.
這個重建上世紀六十年代房屋的計劃明顯與干涉主義頗為相似。很多這樣的住宅區(qū)諸如南部薩瑟克區(qū)的埃爾斯伯里地產以及東部陶爾哈姆萊茨區(qū)的羅賓伍德花園正面臨拆除。通過增加拆除點的數(shù)量密度以及使用出售額外已建房屋的收入，政府應該可以收回重建的成本。但地方政府因資金短缺而力不從心，而私營開發(fā)商以收取高額回報作為注入資本的交換條件。有了中央政府劃撥的資金，這些項目得以進行得更為迅速，并且地方政府可以從他們的用地中獲利更多。
These are decent measures—but nowhere near enough. To accommodate population growth,Englandalone needs to increase its supply of homes to around 230,000 per year, more than twice the number built last year. The real restriction onBritain's construction sector is planning policy, which constrains building near existing infrastructure at the edge of cities. The chancellor has been unable to change that. Instead, he is in effect adopting a milder version of 1960s-style grand planning: using government money to boost construction on marginal, unpopular sites. It is an improvement, but only just.
這些措施還不錯，但還遠遠不夠。為適應人口增長，僅僅只是英格蘭地區(qū)每年就需要增加約23萬套房屋供應，是去年已建成數(shù)量的兩倍。英國建筑業(yè)真正的限制是規(guī)劃政策，其中包括了城市邊緣已落成的公共基礎設施附近的建筑。財政大臣奧斯本無權改變。相反，實際上他采取了一個更溫和的上世紀六十年代的宏偉規(guī)劃：用政府的錢刺激邊緣、偏遠地帶的城市建設。這是一種進步，但不僅僅是進步。譯者 周雨晴 校對 邵夏沁
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