A FAT CAT banker with a £763,000 salary has today been slammed for declaring it is not "that difficult" for people to buy a house.
NatWest chairman Sir Howard Davies said people just have to "save" - insisting "that is the way it always used to be” if they want to buy a home.
Brexit supremo Nigel Farage is just one to hit out - accusing Sir Howard of being a member of the "entitled elite" with no idea about the "real world".
It comes as property values were reported to have surged by 1.7% on average across 2023, with the average home valued £4,800 higher than at the end of 2022, according to the Halifax house price index.
Average house prices rose by 1.1% month-on-month in December, the third monthly rise in a row.
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Asked by the BBC when it will be easier for people in the UK to get on the property ladder, Sir Howard said: “I don’t think it is that difficult at the moment.”
He went on: “You have to save and that is the way it always used to be.”
The NatWest boss said the 2008 financial crisis had led to safeguarding against “dangers in very easy access to mortgage credit”.
He acknowledged there are people who are "finding it very difficult to start the process", adding: "They will have to save more, but that is, I think, inherent in the change in the financial system as a result of the mistakes that were made in the last global financial crisis.”
Sir Howard also faced questions about the so-called debanking row, which saw former Ukip leader Mr Farage revealing Coutts, the luxury bank owned by NatWest, was planning to close his account.
The row culminated in the resignation of former NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose, who admitted to a “serious error of judgment” when she discussed Mr Farage’s relationship with Coutts with a BBC journalist.
Asked whether it was reasonable for the NatWest board to say they had full confidence in Dame Alison after the reports emerged, Sir Howard said: “I continue to say that the judgment that we made at the time was a reasonable one.
“At the time what we also said was that we wanted an independent legal review, which we commissioned, to be able to satisfy ourselves what was said and what was not, because it was not remotely clear at the time.”
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, about Sir Howard's comments, Mr Farage said: "Howard Davies is a member of the entitled elite with no idea about NatWest’s customers or the real world."
Tory former minister Brendan Clarke-Smith told The Sun: "To be fair, in many parts of the country housing is still relatively affordable. I do feel for younger people in London and the south of England, though.
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"The solution to this is to build houses where people actually want them, rather than meeting meaningless targets, and to make sure we level up employment opportunities across the whole country, which is something we have been doing."
Conservative MP Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) also said: "Someone as wealthy as Sir Howard may be able to buy a home in my constituency where the average price is over an eye-watering £1m. Sadly there aren’t as many as fortunate as him."
Sir Howard later said he "did not intend to underplay the serious challenges" faced by first-time buyers and that his claim was meant to reflect easier mortgage access.
He said: "Given recent rate movements by lenders there are some early green shoots in mortgage pricing and while funding remains strong, my comment was meant to reflect that in this context access to mortgages is less difficult than it has been.
"I fully realise it did not come across in that way for listeners and as I said on the programme, I do recognise how difficult it is for people buying a home and I did not intend to underplay the serious challenges they face.
"People have to save much more than they did in the past and that is tough for first time buyers. The role for banks in today’s environment is to lend responsibly and support customers to build a savings habit and move towards home ownership.”
