'Stupendously out of touch': Govt savaged after saying £30k worker could buy terraced home in London

30 September 2022, 12:11

A Government tweet explaining how a first-time house buyer on £30,000 could save thousands on a terraced home has been savaged.

Furious social media users piled onto the Treasury's Twitter account as they demanded to know which first-time buyers on £30,000 were buying a terraced house in the capital.

It was the latest communications disaster from a Government that has been floundering since its mini-budget threw markets into chaos.

"Thanks to the Growth Plan, a typical first time buyer in London moving into a representative terraced house will save £11,250 on stamp duty & £1,050 on the household's energy bills - and if they earn £30,000 almost an additional £400 on tax," the Treasury said.

"This is around £12,700 in total."

The idea someone on £30,000 would be able to afford a deposit or monthly mortgage repayments on a house was savaged.

Real estate company Zoopla has the average terraced house price in London at £846,548.

A mortgage at 3.5% interest would work out at more than £4,000 a month after a deposit in the tens of thousands.

One Twitter user asked: "Please can you show me terraced houses a first time buyer in London can buy with their £30k salary ?"

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Another replied: "You probably can if Mum & Dad give you a £300k deposit downpayment."

"Who do you spanners think is earning £30k a year and buying a terraced house in london - average house price £523,666 ??" wrote one irate user, while another blasted them as "stupendously out of touch".

Sam Freedman, a journalist and columnist, said: "I can only assume the Treasury comms team have resorted to smoking crack if they reckon someone on £30k is buying a terraced house in London."

Labour's shadow Scotland secretary said: "This just highlights how out of touch the Tories are. 1. £11,250 Stamp duty saving = £600k house price

"2. They use someone on £30k salary. 3. 25-year mortgage of £600k @ 4% interest would cost £3167 p/mth - £38,000 p/yr.

"4. Any savings wiped out by Tory economic chaos anyway."

Brian Moore, the former rugby star and frequent critic of the Conservatives, said: "Great - anybody got a spare half a million?"

Writer John O'Farrell said: "Dear out-of-touch treasury person who wrote this. If you earned £30k you could not afford a 'representative terraced house' in London.

"You could not afford a rabbit hutch in f****** Dagenham."

"I know we wanted the government to be a bit less Londoncentric, but it would help if they didn't act like they had literally no idea what the place was like and how much things in it cost," said writer Emma Burnell.