(Bloomberg) -- The UK government’s social mobility adviser along with a former Conservative minister added their voices to criticism of the Bank of England pandemic stimulus program, saying it widened the gap between the rich and the poor. 

Resham Kotecha, social mobility commissioner for the government and the head of policy for the Open Data Institute, said that the central bank’s policy and vast bond purchases was one of the drivers of asset inflation, worsening inequality. 

David Willetts, the president of the Resolution Foundation and an former adviser to the UK Treasury and prime minister’s office, echoed those views, saying the program known as quantitative easing lifted asset prices in a way that aided older and more wealthy people over the young.

The remarks on Tuesday at a hearing of the Treasury Committee in Parliament add to concerns about the QE program the BOE deployed after the global financial crisis more than a decade ago and stepped up during the pandemic. The central bank bought as much as £895 billion ($1.1 trillion) of assets to hold down interest rates in financial markets.  

The BOE has come under fire from critics who argue that QE has worsened inequality, particularly between generations, by putting a rocket under house prices and inflating other asset prices.

Asked whether growth in the money supply had fueled inequality, Kotecha said: “Yes, but I think it’s a combination of that plus a lack of (housing) supply for decades, plus ... more interest in the UK as a place for international buyers.”

The remarks push back against the BOE’s assertion that ultra-loose monetary policy since the financial crisis did not worsen inequality in the UK. Ben Broadbent, the BOE’s deputy governor for monetary policy, set out a staunch defense of the policy, arguing that a widening in income, wealth and intergenerational inequality occurred prior to the QE era.

However, soaring house prices have put home ownership increasingly out of reach for young Brits. Research from The Resolution Foundation found that millennials are half as likely to own their home by 30 as baby boomers and four times more likely to rent.

“There was one year I think during the Covid lockdown when we had QE back when asset prices surged as a result of QE and so I think for pensioners, their average wealth increased by £17,000 in one year,” Willetts said. “Of course young people didn’t have any assets, didn’t enjoy any increases. But in the long run, I don’t think we should use all those monetary effects and the regulatory issues ... to hide the fact Britain still has got a low housing stock for the number of people we have.”

The remarks jar with previous statements made by Broadbent. 

“These measures of inequality we have during the QE period, they have been completely flat, basically, whether for wealth or income,” Broadbent told the Treasure Committee last month. “Indeed, wealth inequality, measured the standard way, is lower than it was in the mid-90s.”

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