UK: BoE ‘can’t direct housing prices’

The Bank of England (BoE) could not and should not control rising house prices, Spencer Dale, the bank’s executive director for financial stability strategy and risk, told the Daily Mail on Saturday. The bank said on Thursday that from October, it would impose its first limits on how much most people could borrow to buy a home in a bid to stem increasing debt levels amid double-digit price growth in the housing market. “It is not our job to control house prices, nor can we control prices,” Dale said. “They will be determined by the market.” – Reuters