Everyone knows it's happening, everyone that is except Governor Carney (who's a bit in two minds about it) and Chancellor Osborne (who has enough trouble with the one mind, thank you!).
Housing charity Shelter has published a report that shows that an average earner in England would be taking home an extra £29,000 a year if salaries had kept pace with property prices since 1997.
Spiralling house prices and a slowdown in the number of home being built in recent years mean that in many areas of the country wages have failed to keep pace with the housing market, pushing property out of reach of a growing number of people.
Shelter analysed house prices and earnings across England for the period between 1997 and 2012 and found that while the average price of a home had increased more than threefold, from £75,762 to £253,816, average wages had gone up by much less, from £16,500 to £25,932.
So, as home-ownership is a fast receding aspiration for many, more are turning to the private-rented sector for accommodation.Separate research by the estate agent Countrywide based on 50,000 private rented homes showed that in January 60% of tenants were aged over 30, and a growing number of families were living in let accommodation. Rents in this secot are not regulated and it is local supply and demand that limits the rents, which is why the Housing Benefit bill is, pardon the expression, going through the roof.
This is money that is going to landlords who have used, in the main, buy-to-let mortgage schemes to provide for the gap in the housing market, and they can charge what they like, as long as local HB rates will make up what the renter can't afford.
More full-time jobs and jobs at a better rate of pay would also help to relieve some of the pressure that Shelter has identified.If the annual amount spent on HB was spent on house building home-building then perhaps we would see the beginning of an end to this crazy self-defeating spiral.
But don't build on the flood plains, on fracking sites, etc eh?
Housing charity Shelter has published a report that shows that an average earner in England would be taking home an extra £29,000 a year if salaries had kept pace with property prices since 1997.
Spiralling house prices and a slowdown in the number of home being built in recent years mean that in many areas of the country wages have failed to keep pace with the housing market, pushing property out of reach of a growing number of people.
Shelter analysed house prices and earnings across England for the period between 1997 and 2012 and found that while the average price of a home had increased more than threefold, from £75,762 to £253,816, average wages had gone up by much less, from £16,500 to £25,932.
So, as home-ownership is a fast receding aspiration for many, more are turning to the private-rented sector for accommodation.Separate research by the estate agent Countrywide based on 50,000 private rented homes showed that in January 60% of tenants were aged over 30, and a growing number of families were living in let accommodation. Rents in this secot are not regulated and it is local supply and demand that limits the rents, which is why the Housing Benefit bill is, pardon the expression, going through the roof.
This is money that is going to landlords who have used, in the main, buy-to-let mortgage schemes to provide for the gap in the housing market, and they can charge what they like, as long as local HB rates will make up what the renter can't afford.
More full-time jobs and jobs at a better rate of pay would also help to relieve some of the pressure that Shelter has identified.If the annual amount spent on HB was spent on house building home-building then perhaps we would see the beginning of an end to this crazy self-defeating spiral.
But don't build on the flood plains, on fracking sites, etc eh?
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