Younger people should be rewarded for lockdown via affordable housing

[Ordree]

As others have noted, young people (not just those in frontline roles) are making enormous sacrifices to protect others, mostly but not exclusively from much older age groups. They will be bequeathed a damaged planet, a ruined economy and they will have done further damage to their mental health by staying indoors for months on end. They are the ones paying older people's pensions when they won't have anything like the same financial security to look forward to themselves. Yes I know older people paid their elders pensions during their working lives, bit never has there been such an imbalance. As the economy is likely to be ruined short to medium term anyway, would it not be reasonable to start the biggest givernment-funded housebuilding programme ever, allow younger people who have just bought to write off negative equity losses against tax, and essentially redress some of the appalling imbalance between generations and classes?

House prices should of been held down years ago it has been unaffordable for most for sometime but when we are the other side of this I don't think affordable housing should be just for young , ideally for all that need it and as I said before every generation has had its challenges

Op your post is mind blowingly entitled.

Housing should be affordable.

All people (not just ‘young’ people) who make sacrifices and/or stick to lockdown rules should be commended.

They’re just two random beliefs. I don’t understand the link.

would it not be reasonable to start the biggest givernment-funded housebuilding programme ever
Something like half of Tory MPs are landlords. They run the country on behalf of big business and the seriously moneyed elite. One third of Labour MPs are as well, so wouldn't get hopes up about a Labour government if we ever happen to see one this century which seems unlikely given England's Brexit/Tory love in. Ain't happening I'm afraid.

Having said all that of course I agree in principal. A home to call your own shouldnt be something that you only get at middle age (which is practically where we are now).

Disagree. There are too many empty houses as it is... and why should one generation benefit more than another? Depending on your definition of a 'young adult' I am one and I disagree... things in life need to be worked for, not handed out on a plate! That way we respect nothing I've had a part time job then full time since I was 13... I've saved for the things I have, just like my grandparents did... I see nothing wrong with this my younger brother is what I would call a 'snowflake' this isn't what they need to grow as people

I do get fed up wih the idea that older people have some how had it easier.
Unlike young people today most started work at 16 and will not retire until nearly 70
Unlike young people today that seem to stay in education untill their mid 20s

That’s not correct. Many in local government, NHS, teachers, police, prison service, fire service and the civil service to name just a few can retire at 60 or before. They have excellent pensions that are indexed linked. It is factually correct that older people had a better outcome from working life. It is the younger people of today who will be working until they are 70 if they don’t work for the government.

I would imagine the younger poster above doesn’t own a house in London. Try buying that on an average salary!

What does any of this have to do with lockdown?

How young is young?

To an earlier poster, many the older generation have enjoyed the benefits of a free university education
But only a small minority of school leavers went to university then. Most of us left school at 16 and had to study for qualifications at our own expense while working full time.

I think a lot of older people have had it easier than the young. But regardless of that affordable housing should be a focus of the government.

There definitely should be something done to redress the balance. I'm not optimistic though. The costs of this crisis will end up being paid for oon the backs of the young and the poor, just like the financial crisis.

And before anyone moans, I'm an older person myself and have benefited massively from intergenerational unfairness.

As a younger person I'm terrified about the future. I've just lost a business that was profiting at least £1000.00 a month, sadly self employed so no help there as I only started last May. Luckily I was running a business alongside working (14 hour days, most days) so have been furloughed in other work. Whether or not that job will still be a job in three months remains highly questionable. If not I have no idea how I will then find a job that will give me any change of my dream of owning a house when everyone else is looking too. God I would just love to be able to hang a picture on the wall, but oh no, rental contract says I can't do that.
Uni fees, house prices, brexit, the environment, car insurance (despite many years driving, no claims and a 0.9l engine), and now coronavirus. Sometimes I really wonder if it's even worth it. And no, I don't have an extravagant lifestyle, we shop in Aldi and went on one holiday to Scotland last year as first ever holiday.

what bloody planet are you on OP

From where I am standing the young people (20-25) I know through friends and now adult children who didn’t bother with A levels and university are actually doing ok.
A few have already bought their first place.

A couple are married, a few are living together and some have children.

The ones that went or are currently at university are the ones who are suffering financially

May be just get rid of university and A levels unless you know what you are actually getting into.

That might help a lot

Lol too funny. The planet is a lot better off in all respects than it was for every generation before you. You’re inheriting a much improved place. So, no, you don’t get a reward for surviving corona virus.

Many in local government, NHS, teachers, police, prison service, fire service and the civil service to name just a few can retire at 60 or before. They have excellent pensions that are indexed linked. It is factually correct that older people had a better outcome from working life. It is the younger people of today who will be working until they are 70 if they don’t work for the government.

So older people have better pensions if they worked for the government, and young people also have better pensions if they work for the government?

No foreign holidays for the masses back in the 1960s, two-car homes were a rarity. Unemployment was 12% when I came out of school, much higher than last year. After 8 years of full-time work I scraped up the money for a deposit on a glorified bedsit, but there was no question of being able to run a car, have a child or attend even one festival as well as pay the mortgage. Not in London or an expensive area.

Young people just don't realise that we were all young once and for most, we didn't get everything handed on a plate.

As a 'younger' recent first time home owner i find this incredibly patrionsing. Yes it's tough, but we should all just be happy to be alive, every age has made their own sacrifices so why should 'younger' generation get a bail out at the expense of other people.

Lol too funny. The planet is a lot better off in all respects than it was for every generation before you. You’re inheriting a much improved place.
Global warming, natural resources running out, bushfires in Australia, heavily indebted governments, a decade of austerity and cuts, a mental health crisis, unaffordable housing, ruinous student debt for those who choose to go to university, the dark side of social media, Brexit and the loss of possible ease of travel within the EU; how does this make today's young better off than those growing up say in the 1960s?

Young people just don't realise that we were all young once and for most, we didn't get everything handed on a plate
Sorry I think the young do realise that everyone was once young, and I never said most people had things handed to them on a plate. That is not the same as saying that overall those born in say the 1950s had in many respects an easier time of it than those coming of age today

Sorry OP but everyone up to the age of 40 became an adult AFTER house prices went sky high, and also had to pay uni fees and get a student loan. This isn’t a new problem - a whole generation has struggled with it for decades.

Is there a reason you’re avoiding the plethora of sensible questions that have been asked of you?

(Don’t worry this is somewhat rhetorical as I know you won’t answer)

The government haven’t just shit a money tree.

Our country is on its knees. Let the deaths of our family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, acquaintances, health care workers (and on and on) being kept to a minimum be a reward for staying in.

I’m in my early 30’s so don’t consider myself old but this is ridiculous.

To be honest I think you’re right.
Maybe not young homeowners, but more of the buy to rent or affordable/social rent/shared ownership stuff

My parents saved enough to buy a three bed townhouse with a massive garden in streatham when mum was pregnant with me. I was born at 29 weeks. So she and my dad saved that in under six months whilst still living in rented accommodation and maintaining a “solid quality of life” as they put it.
They both worked in shops.

Please tell me how on earth a couple working in shops (high street chain still about now) in their late 20s could sustain themselves and save for a deposit anywhere in six months. Really.

We’ve buggered young people.