Gavin Barwell, the Housing Minister has been airing some interesting views about the UK’s housing crisis and how it can be resolved.

His first suggestion is that parents should disinherit their children, passing their estate straight through to grandchildren. This would, in some way, ease the housing crisis and combat what he calls ‘inter-generational unfairness’ by letting those grandchildren lucky enough to benefit from granny’s wealth, and leap onto the housing ladder.

It’s a strange idea. Mr Barwell’s mother has done that very thing apparently, leaving her £750,000 home and her other wealth to his children and those of his brother. He said, “We all like to think our children are going to be better off than us. In terms of life expectancy and new technology, they are going to be. But as things stand they are less likely to own their own home and we need to do something about that. There is a profound inter-generational unfairness that has been created over a number of years.”

Housing Minister’s mother is leaving her estate to her grandchildren… which may help the housing crisis…

The Prime Minister’s office was quick to distance itself from the idea, saying that not was not acceptable for the government to intervene in the way people distribute their wealth, “These were personal comments made by Gavin Barwell, they are certainly not policy.”

And Paul Green, from Saga, said “Elderly people don’t want to be lectured , it must be for those who have worked hard to own their own home to decide to whom they leave it when they die.”

In another suggestion, Mr Barwell suggested that we should build homes that don’t meet current minimum space standards so that young people can afford to buy them. The odd thing about this suggestion is that he cited the flats being built by Pocket, which are just 400 sq ft, and sell for just under £250,000. Not quite so affordable then.