The District Council reports here that:
Affordable rent vacancies have decreased from 60 in 2015/16 to just 26 in 2016/17.
If you have a housing problem, the District Council now has one ‘Housing Options Team,’ creating a more streamlined service, with an emphasis on helping people at risk of homelessness….
What qualifies as “affordable” ?
Very good point Oz. Nothing for a young person leaving their parents home or a married couple on or around minimum wage.
Bruce, I take your point but we have somehow convinced ourselves that in the past the UK was a place of milk & honey. Today people don’t want to make any sacrifices, the me me me snowflake generation want it all now. What happened to saving hard to get a deposit on a house / flat. Granted deposits are higher now but I know of two young couples ( not earning sky high wages ) who have managed to get on the property ladder by doing just that. So, no latest £50pcm phone, no clubbing, no 2 weeks in Ibiza spending sixty quid getting into a disco, no £100 trainers and guess what, you have enough for a house after a couple of years. When they do get a place at least they won’t be paying a mortgage at 15%…like the oldies did.
Yep , me too ( been there / done that ) and I have to agree with Oz that the
“Aspirational Generation” culture is a part of the problem but it is more complicated than that, however –
Maybe the old order of things has changed , maybe owning your own home
(eventually for the benefit of your offspring ) is too long a project for the
modern world – certainly it is’nt an obsession accross Europe , who tend to rent. So maybe those who live for the moment ( credit cards / leased cars / renting ….) and sod the kids inheritance is the ‘new way’ and we old school
Chaps just don’t get it….?.
And yes I know it will cost just as much to rent as a mortgage but they have managed to avoid several years of hard graft / going without to get a deposit….different world now matey.
I just think it is much harder now for young people. For example:
“Britain’s current young generation earned £8,000 less during their 20s than their predecessors and are at risk of being the first cadre of workers in modern times to see their lifetime earnings fall, according to new research.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/18/millennials-earn-8000-pounds-less-in-their-20s-than-predecessors”
and house prices are higher now compared to earnings – in 2015 an average UK house was about 5 times average earnings, compared with about 3 times in 1987
http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5709/housing/market/
Yes it is Admin , and I made the point that maybe , just maybe , owning your
own home is now an outdated concept – they say what goes around comes around , and back in the day only the Landed Gentry could afford it.
And that is where we seem to be headed ( your other point above) with
zero hour contracts / minimum wage and existing infrastructures falling into
decay via cut backs / under-funding etc;.
Pretty bleak outlook is’nt it……..?
OK some back up now available from a recent report from the housing charity ‘Shelter’ :-
Between 2003-14 the population increased by 4.5 million , during the same period some 1.9 million homes were built – that gives an occupancy average
of 2.37 / household , in fact about the UK norm. So enough homes have
been built ( despite government propaganda ) however it goes on to show
that most of those homes are being bought as buy to let , so………
The actual problem is that most people are now renting because ( as Oz said)
the circa 20% deposit is ,these days, a deterrent to home ownership.
Now the cynics amongst might even suggest that the government is happy
with this – all that lucky extra taxation on Landlord profits as opposed to
tax relief on mortgages……just a thought !!!!
While we are on the subject, here is an interesting article on our precious little snowflakes…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4232696/Millenials-generation-huge-sense-entitlement.html