Mrs May’s “personal crusade” to fix the broken housing market is as laughable as it is insulting to those struggling to find themselves a decent home in these days where private rented accommodation has taken the place of the traditional council house.
One of the more unsavoury aspects of the Thatcher inspired ‘loadsa money’ aspirations, of the 80’s was an increase in the mentality that looked down on council house tenants as second class citizens or even some kind of feral breed.
Going for a song
Selling off the country’s council housing stock on the cheap to those previously content to rent went a long way to encouraging a whole new crowd of snobs. Some of those people, who let’s face it, could only get into the housing market because the government artificially lowered the cost of entry, suddenly joined the snooty bunch, quickly grew six foot leylandii bushes and stopped shopping at Iceland.
The old Tory chestnut that property ownership is what everyone aspires to is trotted out every time it’s pointed out to them that their housing policy is failing abysmally. And before readers make the wrong assumption, the Leftie is in no way anti home ownership and would be a total hypocrite to say otherwise.
However, what is clear is that there are plenty of people in the UK who don’t or simply cannot aspire to property ownership that have been disgracefully left behind.
Slowly waking up
Current news that research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, showing home ownership among young adults has collapsed, will worryingly come as a surprise to Mrs May in her crusade. More worrying is that it didn’t need such an in depth study or a professor of mathematics to work out why. A few simple Google searches provide all you need to kick her hollow, condescending and monotone bullshit into the long grass:
- Average UK house price as at November 2017 £226,071
- Average annual UK salary £27,000
- Average mortgage multiplier 4 x salary or 3 x joint
- Average first time buyer deposit according to Which is 17% (38k)
So, even if a young adult managed to beg, borrow or steal £38,000 for a deposit they would still have to earn around £20,000 more than the average salary to obtain a mortgage. Even a young couple lucky enough to be both earning the average wage would come up short.
With that in mind what hope is there for those on the minimum or living wage?
Into the arms of a Rachman (or Van Hoogstraten)
Of course the current solution to this conundrum (and if it wasn’t so tragic it would be funny) is to stay with mum and dad until they die or throw yourself at the mercy of the private rental market. The latter option provides yet another opportunity for the establishment to kick you in the balls.
The banks, culpable for much of the economic crash that ushered in these years of unfair austerity, can look at a mortgage application and decline it on the basis that a monthly repayment of £750 might be beyond the means of the applicant.
With no other choice the applicant is forced in the direction of a private landlord charging £900 + a month in rent and who is happy to oblige based on a reference from probably the same bank!
And just to rub a little more salt into the gaping wound there’s probably a very good chance that the property up for rent was originally built as a council house.
Tory maths (never good)
The big issue that really needs addressing by the government is how to provide a comfortable home to people when the countries average wage comes nowhere near covering the average cost of buying one.
Council housing or social housing, call it what you will, used to provide families with a secure and comfortable home, free from the worry of sudden steep rent hikes or even eviction, at an affordable price. Read any social history from the immediate post war era, when slum and bomb damage clearance resulted in council estates springing up in semi-rural areas, and you’ll read stories of people being “proud” of their new home even though they didn’t own it.
So yes, many people aspire to home ownership but there are just as many who don’t or can’t due to financial circumstances. These people are not welfare spongers looking to get something for nothing but honest folk that want a home fit for purpose for an affordable rent.
Calling time on the landlords
Just why the current government is so reluctant to recognise the obvious is a direct result of its desire to shrink the State and line the pockets of property developers and party donors.
Diluting the rental market would of course also have a detrimental effect on the personal wallets of some members of that very same government and don’t they know it. With private rental portfolios to protect real “social” housing is anathema to them.
What other possible reason could there be for so many of them voting against a motion calling on private landlords to ensure their properties are fit for human habitation?
Eloquent Leftie
The Eloquent Leftie 