Help to Buy is failing – so why won't our Government admit we're in the midst of a housing crisis?

If your house caught fire and you were hanging out of the window screaming for the emergency services, you wouldn't welcome a rescuer armed with matches and a can of petrol

Research has found the Government's Help to Buy ISA will only support a 'lucky' few who qualify (Getty)

The myth of Cassandra – given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, but on spurning him cursed that her prophecies would never be believed – strikes a chord with anyone with half a brain following the trials of the UK housing market. Unfortunately, nobody in the Conservative Party seems to have put half a brain to work on housing policy, which is, to put it mildly, unfortunate in the midst of a housing crisis.

Homelessness rates are rising and rising, both in terms of street homelessness and the less visible households stuck in temporary accommodation, languishing on council waiting lists.

Renters have huge chunks of their monthly income eaten up by their housing costs, with little hope of saving for a home of their own. Would-be owners are trapped watching the cost of a two-bedroom flat rocket, far surpassing the piddling rise in average income we've seen post-recession.

So it is little surprise that the latest Government solution to the crisis, the Help to Buy ISA, has been found to help so few people. Since it does precisely nothing to address the core problem – high house prices – few people will be helped on to the ladder.

In large swathes of the country, the cost of a two-bed property already falls outside the thresholds set by the Government: the purchase cap currently stands at £250,000 outside London, and £450,000 inside the M25. A BBC investigation found that 68 per cent of two-bed properties in the South-east had asking prices that exceeded the cap, and 28 per cent outside of the South-east had breached it too.

The Government is handing out free money to a small number of people lucky enough to find a property within those tight parameters. If you save £12,000 the government will give you £3,000 tax free in your ISA, but nothing in the housing market changes, and no new properties are built.

Why? Because the Government still believes that an overheated housing market is a public good; that inflated house prices represent earned money rather than a temporary, dangerous, unsustainable economic blip. And because nothing scares the Conservatives more than the idea of a house price crash.

Tory housing policy is the epitome of tinkering with the deckchairs while the ship is listing. If your house caught fire and you were hanging out of the window screaming for the emergency services, rushing around with some matches and a can of petrol would be neither helpful nor appreciated. And yet that’s exactly the effect of the government’s housing policies.

In this climate, the Help to Buy ISA – just like the Help to Buy equity loans before them, the creation of ‘starter homes’, and extending the right-to-buy to housing associations – is pointless.

There is a way to solve our housing crisis. If the Government put people before markets, it would build more council housing – a form of public investment in housing that pays for itself while offering refuge to those who most need it. Housing that gives children a stable and secure home, and means rent is paid back into local areas rather than disappearing into the pockets of private landlords.

Help to Buy ISAs won't help homeless families, vulnerable people who've been evicted, or even their intended recipients – young, professional, high-earning couples (who are also potential Conservative voters).

The housing market is out of control because the housing market is all about profit and not people. If housing is now out of reach of high earners, only the most obstinate politicians would try to deny there is a huge problem. Unfortunately, we're stuck with precisely those lawmakers.