2015年经济学人 楼市 温和战略

Housing

Modest plans

The government goes back into housebuilding

WHEN George Osborne is spotted¹ outsideWestminster,

he is very often making an appearance on a building site,

wearing a fluorescent² 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 chancellor³'s proposed interventions⁴ do not add up to much.

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 estuary⁵,

and promises to speed up the redevelopment of several rotting 1960s and 1970s social housing estates inLondon.

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 Treasury⁶ claims, though it will also expose taxpayers⁷ 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.

The new town is more adventurous⁸. 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 partially⁹ flooded quarry¹⁰ with little in the way of shops, public transport or infrastructure¹¹.

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.

A similar interventionism is visible in the plan to rebuild 1960s estates.

Many of these, such as the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark and Robin¹² Hood¹³ Gardens in Tower Hamlets, are crumbling¹⁴.

By increasing the density¹⁵ on the sites, and using the proceeds of selling the extra houses built,

it ought to be possible to cover the cost of reconstruction¹⁶.

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.

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 restriction¹⁷ onBritain's construction sector¹⁸ is planning policy,

which constrains¹⁹ 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.

1 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

2 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

3 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

4 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

5 estuary   

n.河口，江口

参考例句：

• We live near the Thames estuary.我们的住处靠近泰晤士河入海口。
• The ship has touched bottom.The estuary must be shallower than we thought.船搁浅了。这河口的水比我们想像的要浅。

6 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

7 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

8 adventurous   

adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的　

参考例句：

• I was filled with envy at their adventurous lifestyle.我很羨慕他们敢于冒险的生活方式。
• He was predestined to lead an adventurous life.他注定要过冒险的生活。

9 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

10 quarry   

n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找

参考例句：

• Michelangelo obtained his marble from a quarry.米开朗基罗从采石场获得他的大理石。
• This mountain was the site for a quarry.这座山曾经有一个采石场。

11 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

12 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

13 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

14 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

15 density   

n.密集，密度，浓度

参考例句：

• The population density of that country is 685 per square mile.那个国家的人口密度为每平方英里685人。
• The region has a very high population density.该地区的人口密度很高。

16 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

17 restriction   

n.限制，约束

参考例句：

• The park is open to the public without restriction.这个公园对公众开放，没有任何限制。
• The 30 mph speed restriction applies in all built-up areas.每小时限速30英里适用于所有建筑物聚集区。

18 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

19 constrains   

强迫( constrain的第三人称单数 )； 强使； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• We'll ignore the continuity constrains. 我们往往忽略连续约束条件。
• It imposes constrains, restricting nature's freedom. 它具有限制自然界自由度的强制性。