Housing slump over – but growth weak

After months of bad news on the housing front there are now many reports that the worst is over. The latest more positive bulletin comes from Professor David Miles who is the new Bank of England sage on Britain’s battered building industry.

He is also an expert on mortgages being the author five years ago of a Treasury report on the subject, although how much of its content is applicable today – given the mortgage tsunami of the past eighteen months – would seem debatable.

In his upbeat remarks Miles reckons the economy generally – and the housing market in particular – had now endured the worst of the recession and prophesied that somewhat calmer waters should lie ahead.

Testifying to the Treasury Select Committee ahead of the BoE Monetary Policy Committee next week he said it was his hunch that the country had seen most of the house price falls. But he also predicted that the UK economy could only hope for ‘anaemic’ growth in the coming years because of the severity of the financial crisis.