Blog

Working Families Risk Being Shut Out By Montague Row

Vidhya Alakeson

This post originally appeared on The Spectator

Today’s publication of the Montague Review into institutional investment in build to let addresses an important gap in our housing market. Large numbers of people, and a growing number of families, who would have bought homes in the past are now shut out of ownership for the medium to long term. Dominated by buy to let landlords, the private rented sector currently offers them variable quality and limited security at a high price. These working families represent a new form of housing need but they risk being overlooked if the Review’s recommendations get caught up in a conflict between affordable housing (or social housing as it used to be called) and the private rented sector.

Homeownership: the preserve of the rich?

Joe Coward

This post originally appeared on Mortgage Solutions

One of the most striking findings of our Squeezed Britain report, which sets out the economic position of the squeezed middle in forensic detail, is that home ownership is now out of reach for many people on low to middle incomes (LMI).

On the basis of current incomes, house prices and the loan-to-value ratios now available, it would take a first-time buyer on a low to middle income 22 years to save for a deposit compared to three to five years in the 1980s and 1990s.

‘Generation rent’ needs a helping hand

Vidhya Alakeson

This blog originally appeared on Public Finance

Yesterday’s report from the National Housing Federation predicted that by 2021 home ownership in Britain will have fallen to its lowest levels since the mid 1980s. 64 per cent of people will own a home compared to a peak of 73 percent ten years ago.

The government’s response to these predictions was half right. The minister for housing, Grant Shapps, talked about the need to build more homes. This would of course help address the chronic undersupply of housing, with the number of new homes being built at a post-war low. But it was also half wrong by continuing to focus exclusively on meeting people’s aspiration to own and ignoring the potential for the private rented sector.

Making a Rented House a Home

Vidhya Alakeson

Published today, the Resolution Foundation’s Making a Rented House a Home outlines the shocking fact that the average low to middle income household buying a home today would have taken 31 years to save for a deposit , compared to 8 years in 1983. Last week a report by the estate agents, Savills, revealed that for the first time in Britain’s post-war history, more people are becoming tenants than home owners. We are witnessing a major transformation in our housing market that will see Britain become more like Germany and Switzerland where more than half the population rent rather than own a home.

When rates finally rise, things are set to get nasty

Gavin Kelly

This blog first appeared in the New Statesman.

A good recession followed by a bad recovery. Trite lines like this are often wide of the mark, but this one bears some truth. The fallout of the economic downturn over the last few years – though harsh - was less gruesome than first feared in terms of overall unemployment, bankruptcies and repossessions.

On housing, while Ed has got it wrong, Boris has the answer

Vidhya Alakeson

This blog first appeared on Left Foot Forward

In his speech on social responsibility today, Ed Miliband argued that low income working people and those doing voluntary work should be given priority for council housing.

While this might help position his leadership, it is misguided as a piece of housing policy. Shifting ordinary working families into social housing to replace more vulnerable groups does not fix a housing crisis, it simply creates a new one. Local Authorities will find themselves paying higher costs to house vulnerable families and the homeless in the private sector.