To think housing in this country is fundamentally broken?

I’m with you on these factors. I’m very aware, as an older person, that there is a great shortage of suitable accommodation to downsize into. We would like to downsize, but at the moment there are no options where we are. None of the older people I know, 75+, my age group, would contemplate moving in with their children. Several have already downsized into flats.

On the other hand, we've had an increase in the number of young going to Uni thanks to Blair's stupid 50% target that has caused high demand for accommodation in Uni cities and meant highest ever numbers of youngsters leaving their home to go to Uni. Along with the centralisation of jobs out of the regions and into London and a handful of other big cities, many graduates never return to live at home and therefore continue to need their own accommodation in the city where they've found graduate jobs! Swings and roundabouts.

It's not blame, but it IS fact and reality. Allowing mortgages to be higher multiples of joint incomes has pushed up housing costs due to demand pull inflation. Same happened when Brown flooded the economy with cash due to his stupidly generous tax credits - which led to demand pull inflation. None of that is "blaming" feminism, but it's the consequence of it. We wouldn't want it any other way, but it's a very unfortunate side effect of the empowerment of women.

Indeed.

However, there are many factors causing opposite effects.

The main one is the growth in population. Some of this is net immigration, but it's mostly because people live longer. Elderly people living in their own homes means we need more houses. Family size is smaller, so in the whole population, there are more family units, so more housing is required. Moving away for work means that it is not easy to return to the family home for whatever reason, eg the breakup of a relationship, and similarly if an elderly person's family has moved away, they can't simply moving in with them.

As there has been growth in single person/single parent households, there has also been growth in the number of young people continuing to live in their parental home. Instead of moving out after uni or once established in a job, many are choosing to return, or continue to live with parents. That decreases the number of housing units needed.

Attachment

This is the report from Bracknell Forest council on their housing waiting lists. The single people on the waiting list far outnumbers other households. Look at the numbers wanting bigger homes and not getting them. In general, housing families should be a priority but they are far more difficult to house.

Im addition the biggest pressure on housing is in London and the SE. Land costs more and less of it is available. We do however still see strong housing demand in London.

@Balletpoint People who lived together in one house snd then went another house, so two houses, obviously add to housing demand. It makes no difference what type of accommodation. If they own it or rent it, it still has to be built! Of course coupled splitting and maintaining two homes puts pressure on the supply of homes. Not that I’m advocating couples stay together but it’s still a pressure on housing.

Yes it was addressing it but has it been successful.

Erm, wasn't that something feminism was addressing?

There's some real pretzeling going on here...

I think too many women idolise men and are scared to be alone. I want women to be stronger and have self belief.

You blame women for being in abusive relationships.

I am female and I want women to have better lives. I think there have been downsides to feminism and don't see women having much better lives but see many struggling. Two wages necessary to purchase a home is detrimental to women and men.

If other posters agree with me I can't be all wrong.

You usually find that this type of misogynist doesnt like child free by choice women either

I take it personally because I have had people tell me I am to blame for the housing crisis.
Point your finger up, not down at me.

I recognise this poster. On another name, they were very misogynistic and anti-kids. The blaming of women for their bad decisions is a fucking beacon. I am rubbish with usernames etc but sometimes one sticks out like a sore thumb when you can recognise the rubbish they spill out.

Is that you Tate? Or Peterson? It's pretty impressive that apparently women are now to blame for the housing crisis according to this thread, what with their multiple partners, feckless breeding and also careers and selfish notions of equality apparently...

Honestly if things regress much further down this line we'll be in pre Big Bang territory...

Here's a controversial view why there is a housing crisis. Feminism.

This has resulted in two wages necessary to purchase a house.

Before feminism there were successful women in business and yes the numbers have increased but at what cost?

Judging by the number if threads on munsnet many women are still reliant on a man or the tax payer.

The basis of our economy is house prices, if they fall, consumer confidence falls off a cliff.
Now, that may be a price worth paying but it wont help the Govt that does this.

Where will councils get the money to affordably house people with an economy in recession?

We need to build Council Housing, not all at once but steadily, over time - 10 to 15 years... gradually shifting from private BTL to the original model of social housing, being careful not to recreate the ghettos of the sink housing estates we have had.

Not really. Even better would be to demolish entire blocks of derelict/semi derelict High Street retail space, most of which will have empty "flats" above and these days most will be empty shops on the ground floor too. Build flats instead. Do the same with the street upon street of semi derelict terraced housing in the "wrong" end of towns, especially run down Northern towns, run down seaside resorts, etc. Likewise all the ex commercial units around the edges of towns which are likewise often semi derelict. Rejuvenate these run down towns and run down town centres with new purpose built flats and get people living in towns again which would rejuvenate local/convenience shops, cafes, etc. It's seen to work with Uni towns because there's incentives for developers to repurpose town centre derelict properties because they can make a killing with communal living student accommodation. The govt need to incentivise the developers to do the same with ex commercial and ex retail premises in run down towns rather than leave so much property unused and derelict.

The housing 'crisis' is because those not rich enough to live alone without financial support
are being funded by the council
to live in unsuitable accommodation

the answer is to allow councils to affordably house those who cannot house themselves
cut private landlords and builders out of the whole equation

then the price of ALL houses would fall as the floor is lowered

You’re taking this very personally. More of the population living alone is adding to the housing crisis. No one’s blaming you personally, but it means that we need to build more housing to accommodate this social change which we are not doing.

Landlords are pushing up prices because they CAN. They’re getting as much money as possible and they can do this and the government has made being a landlord so unappealing, so many landlords have left the market that there is no where left to rent. Who’d be a landlord? Look at Scotland. The number of properties withdrawn from the rental market following the rent controls is vast. This is the reason why rent rises are through the roof here. If a landlord can only increase the rents at a change of tenant, the rent goes up minimum of 25% at the change of tenants. And people will pay this because there’s a huge shortage of rental properties due to the rent controls. Landlords are making money due to appalling housing policies. Rent controls have failed everywhere they’ve been tried.

The reasons for the housing crisis is broad and complex.

It is not about one bedroom flats, although they undoubtably are part of the solution.

The best way to solve the crisis is to demolish houses and replace them with skyscrapers. Change the culture from a 2 or 3 bed house with a garden, to living in a 2 or 3 bed apartment instead. That's the only real way to offer the amount of housing needed, without creating brand new cities or expanding significantly into greenbelt land.

Of course, nobody wants to lose the home, there's too much NIMBY-ism and red tape preventing housing projects from being built, so nothing is getting done.

Sorry but couples not living together or even claiming a paltry level of Housing Benefit is not adding to housing shortages.

We have a falling birthrate, in any normal world, this should lead to a surplus of housing but thanks to the Tories, who sold off all housing stock and then latterly, allowed in millions of migrants, we are now in the mess we can all see.

Your thinking is off.