There was no mention in the leadership debate, but Boris Johnson cannot ignore the agonies of Generation Rent
“THE idea of owning my own home is laughable. The situation is genuinely hopeless and I find it terrifying to think about the future.
“I’ve never voted Labour, but the lure has never been stronger. I’m by no means a socialist, but when a modest ambition like owning a decent home to start a family is out of reach for so many, we know something is seriously wrong in our society.”
As a newspaper columnist, I get many letters from the public. This one pulled me up short.
I’ve just written a book, Home Truths: The UK’s Chronic Housing Shortage, which has provoked plenty of reader feedback.
And the young voter who wrote this heartfelt missive put his finger on the key to the outcome of the most important General Election since World War Two.
Housing is the dog yet to bark in this campaign. No mention was made of it in last night’s leaders’ debate.
But our political classes — and even some in the media — seem to have forgotten just why Jeremy Corbyn came within a few thousand votes of Downing Street in June 2017.
It was down to the rise in support for Labour among “generation rent”, the millions of 25 to 39-year-olds who, unlike their parents, cannot afford to buy a home.
While Brexit is important, Britain’s housing shortage should also be centre stage.
The UK needs around 250,000 new homes each year to meet population growth — 2.5million every decade.
Our political classes seem to have forgotten just why Jeremy Corbyn came within a few thousand votes of Downing Street in June 2017.
We built just 1.8million during the 1980s, and the numbers have fallen every decade since.
The resulting massive shortage is why the average UK home now costs eight times average annual wages — well over twice the historic norm — rising to 12 times in the South East.
Across the country, from the North West to the Midlands and parts of Scotland and Wales too, countless young adults, even well-paid professionals, are “priced out” of property ownership.
Often spending half their income on rent, their home-buying dream is slipping away.
In 1991, 67 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds owned a home. Now it is just 38 per cent.
LIVES ON HOLD
Well over three-quarters of 35 to 44-year-olds were owner-occupiers in the early 1990s. That has fallen to just over half.
Home ownership overall has plunged from 73 per cent of households in 2007 to 60 per cent today, well below the EU average. We are no longer “a nation of homeowners”.
And lower down the income scale, an endemic shortage of council houses is driving a shocking increase in over-crowding and homelessness.
Frustration and insecurity abound, with so many being denied a decent home.
Millions of young adults are stuck in shared, rented accommodation and have put their lives on hold.
Four out of every ten 30-year-olds now rent, compared to just one in ten in 1996.
Today’s young adults are spending more on housing, and are less likely to be owner-occupiers, than at any time since the 1930s.
As prices have spiralled ahead of wages, half of first-time buyers now get help from “the bank of Mum and Dad”, rising to two-thirds in the South East — an option available only to some.
By the end of the 2020s, just a quarter of 25 to 34-year-olds will own their own home — causing a massive sense of injustice among those “priced out”.
Such voters are coming of age, voting in greater numbers and becoming more angry.
Since 2013, the Government has responded with Help To Buy, stoking demand even more, while handing huge profits to fat-cat large developers channelling young homebuyers into often sub-standard, new-build homes.
Radical reform is needed on the supply side instead — not least the over-mighty housebuilding industry.
As local councils have lately granted more planning permissions, greedy big builders now dominating the industry have staged a deliberate go-slow, making higher profits overall by producing fewer homes so prices keep rising.
Bold measures are needed to inject competition into this once vibrant industry, helping small firms regain a foothold.
Reforms are needed to our opaque and deeply dysfunctional land market.
When residential permissions are granted, land values can rocket two to three-hundred-fold.
This vast “planning gain” goes almost entirely to landowners and developers. It should instead be significantly shared with local government, dampening price speculation.
This would result in more affordable homes while generating funds to build schools, hospitals and other infrastructure making the presence of new homes more popular with existing locals.
And while parts of the green belt should be preserved, much of it is urban scrub long overdue for development.
Now covering 13 per cent of England’s landmass, the green belt has more than doubled in size since the 1970s.
REFORMS NEEDED
Housing, including gardens, takes up less than two per cent — the idea there is “no space” to build is a myth.
Our housing crisis is causing serious human misery — and serious inter-generational conflict.
When I tell older homeowners about my concerns, their response ranges from apathy to mockery, and my 25-year-old reader told me.
“They really don’t understand — at all — the psychological impact perpetual renting has on people just trying to get on with their lives.”
MOST READ IN OPINION
Growing numbers of young adults, and those entering middle-age, face the locked door of housing unafford- ability — and feel capitalism isn’t working for them.
Just as owner-occupiers are more likely to vote Tory, millions of young adults paying sky-high rents, with no chance to save for a deposit, are now minded to vote for “a shake-up” — just as they did in 2017, propelling Corbyn to within a whisker of power.
These are home truths Boris Johnson cannot ignore.
- Home Truths: The UK’s Chronic Housing Shortage is published by Biteback, priced £8.
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