We do not republish articles from The Telegraph. Our findings are below, each quoting the words it is about. Read the full article on the outlet's own site.
The Telegraph reports a Centre for Policy Studies estimate of government costs on new homes, attributes it to the think tank and closes with the Government's rejection of the figures. Its headline and opening sentence, though, present the £450,000 as the cost added to the average London new-build. The body later shows the figure comes from one modelled scheme of 100 inner-London flats and assumes an affordable housing rule that the Mayor has currently eased.
Uses figures that mislead
Serious
“adding nearly £450,000 to the average cost of a new-build home in London”
Why this matters
The words "the average cost of a new-build home in London" present the CPS figure as an average across London's new homes.
The impression it gives
A reader believes that, across London, government costs typically add about £450,000 to each new home.
The context
The Telegraph's own later sentence says the figure comes from a single hypothetical scheme of 100 two-bed flats in inner London, not an average of actual new-builds. The base is one modelled development, not the London market.
How we know
Elsewhere in the article“The CPS analysis is based on a property developer that wants to build 100 two-bed flats on land in inner London.”
“adds £450,000 to cost of new London home”
Why this matters
The headline gives the full £450,000 as what red tape adds to a new London home, with no qualification.
The impression it gives
A reader believes that £450,000 is the current added cost of building a home in London today.
The context
The total rests on a 35pc affordable housing requirement worth £194,662. The article itself reports that the Mayor has temporarily cut that requirement to 20pc, which reduces the cost to about £93,118. Under the rules now in force, the modelled total would be roughly £100,000 lower until 2028. The headline also folds taxes and the affordable housing rule into "red tape".
How we know
Elsewhere in the article“has temporarily eased these restrictions to 20pc, reducing the additional cost to nearly £93,118”
Elsewhere in the article“with corporation tax, stamp duty, planning applications and other taxes taking the total additional cost to £442,000”
Government costs and taxes could add about £442,000 to a two-bed flat in a hypothetical inner-London scheme, a think tank estimates, on the assumption of a 35pc affordable housing rule that the Mayor has temporarily eased to 20pc.