Homes market 'needs rate cut'

(First Edition)

The Government was yesterday urged to cut interest rates by a further 1 per cent in an effort to stimulate the housing market.

Peter Miller, of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: 'A rate cut . . . would provide the critical psychological boost that general economic recovery needs. The UK housing market has never depended so much on the swing of the public mood and, with tangible factors like low house prices and high underlying demand pointing to gradual recovery throughout 1993, a rate cut will encourage the large number of people teetering on the edge of a decision to enter the market.'