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?

Unemployment was 12% when I came out of school

Well the unemployment figures these days are not exactly a true representation of things, so many people on zero hours contracts etc.

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

I don’t think anyone expects things to be handed on a plate. People just want to have a reasonable chance of being able to achieve home ownership, have jobs that pay an actual living wage and not one needed to be supplement by benefits, and have a chance of living long enough to see beyond retirement.

It really shouldn’t be a pipe dream to able to work hard in a job that pays well enough to live, afford accommodation and enough left over to save a little. It shouldn’t be a pipe dream to be able to save for a deposit on a house, nor should it be a pipe dream to be able to have a family. All are completely reasonable and normal aspirations for anyone to have and in no way do I think the majority of people expect to have these things handed on a plate. It’s also really doesn’t help telling people that these things are luxuries. It is not wrong to want better, it is not wrong to expect better from our government and should be true for people of all ages!!

Not another baby boomers bashing, check the facts. Not every pensioner has loads of money, particularly those born in the 50s. Many are living in poverty. They have already given up to £50,000 in lost pensions.
All generations have had problems one way or another. This virus is affecting everyone one way or another, why pick out one generation for special consideration.

too many have inadvertently raised entitled and lazy young adults who expect everything handed to them right now instead of working for it over decades from nothing like their parents did

I know a 70 something couple who bought a house in Greater London for £35,000, around twice the sole breadwinner's income, in 1984. The same house without substantial alterations would now cost £400,000. What I am asking is that people should have the chance to get a property with a mortgage and pay for it by working like people did before. If it is ok for aan ordinary terraced house to cost £400k, then what level of house price is unacceptable? £600k for that same terraced house? £1m? £10m?£150m. I have never once encountered a young person who wanted everything at once, it is just a tired cliché.

Anyone denying the opportunities afforded to older people is just being silly. Long gone are the days were people with bog standard jobs in easily buy a house and often sustain a family life on one wage.

You're right, they didn't have smart phones but that's because they didn't exist.

This post has got to be a joke

Key workers, first time etc buyers already get help buying a house eg 'a Key Worker Homebuy Mortgage'.

That's exactly what your post sounds like @Ordree 'deserve' 'have the chance' 'inheritance' all reek of a sense of entitlement.

A terraced house doesn't always cost £400k, so if you can't afford that, move somewhere else. Like thousands of other people do, they moved away from family and friends and made other sacrifices to buy more affordable housing.

London is an expensive place to live. My parents moved out of a city to find more affordable accommodation, nothing stopping they young in London doing the same.

Plenty of over 40s don't own a home and lots are in a similar boat to the younger generation. Worse in fact since they don't have the advantage of time to save up and they weren't included in government help to buy saving schemes. It particularly affects middle-aged people on low incomes, many are disabled, or people needing a home after a divorce.

No one needs to own a home. We need more social housing. We could also follow the lead of European countries where renting is more secure and affordable.

Some pensioners are poor but millions are not. They had mortgage relief and help with pension saving via employer contributions and final salary schemes. Rare these days.

Pardon me! In order to pay for our pensions, we went without:

• holidays overseas until our 40s
• home tech (apart from a cheap little TV)
• quite a few years when I had a 'non-contrib pension' now worth exactly nothing
• 15% mortgage on a house with just an outside loo
• high employment (yes, really)
• negative equity
• Equitable life (made toast of 2 pensions and my mortgage)

When I finally pop my clogs, who will get my house equity? Yup, the next generation will. I can't cash it in. Unless it has to pay for my later life care - which won't be free

@Theukisgreatt people are not being silly about the older generations. Every generation has had its own problems. A vast majority started married life living in a couple of rooms with everything second hand and worked their way up. As for coping on one wage that is absolute rubbish and don’t forget there was no financial help with childcare. Talk to someone who lived through it before making comments like this.

Some pensioners are poor but millions are not. They had mortgage relief and help with pension saving via employer contributions and final salary schemes. Rare these days.

Pardon me! In order to pay for our pensions, we went without:

• holidays overseas until our 40s
• home tech (apart from a cheap little TV)
• quite a few years when I had a 'non-contrib pension' instead of aa higher salary now worth exactly nothing
• 15% mortgage on a house with just an outside loo
• high unemployment (yes, really)
• negative equity
• Equitable life (made toast of 2 pensions and my mortgage)

When I finally pop my clogs, who will get my house equity? Yup, the next generation will. I can't cash it in. Unless it has to pay for my later life care - which won't be free

Talk to someone who has lived through it? I mean literally everyone one I know over the age of 50! @Pixxie7

Shock horror, young people also buy second half stuff!

You need people to do jobs in London. It’s still the powerhouse of the uk and it’s withers pay the most tax. They also have the highest costs but of course it’s not possible for everyone to move. My DD would find it difficult to do her job outside London.

Also we really should acknowledge that, as degree holders, nurses are nowhere near the bottom of the pay pile. They have structured pay rises and a career structure. Thr top nurses are paid well. And do they should be. The cleaners and carers are not. They are also delivering vital services. Neither do they have the same decent pensions at the end of working life. Do any nurses work past 65? Or even 60? Not so many.

Any younger person choosing a job in the government sector away from London and the SE will be ok in life. There are other expensive areas but many can afford somewhere to live away from the most expensive areas.

There are no economic measures that show that baby boomers are anything other than well off overall. I was born in the 50s as was DH. We had tax relief on our mortgage payments. My pension was paid at 60. We had a nice semi for our first house. Could have had detached if we had pushed ourselves. DH went to university. Lots of universities such as Essex, Warwick, Surrey, Sussex and others were built in the 60s plus all the polytechnics. There were opportunities if you grasped them. We had new cars, holidays and spare money. Yes, we paid 15% on our mortgage but it was no real effort. We had an endowment mortgage and got ££££ when that matured too. It was easier for nearly everyone. We didn’t know anyone who rented!

In an attempt to raise children to have what they never had, to raise them in a kinder way with more carrot then stick, too many have inadvertently raised entitled and lazy young adults who expect everything handed to them right now instead of working for it over decades from nothing like their parents did.

This, with bells on!

Plenty of over 40s don't own a home and lots are in a similar boat to the younger generation. Worse in fact since they don't have the advantage of time to save up and they weren't included in government help to buy saving schemes. It particularly affects middle-aged people on low incomes, many are disabled, or people needing a home after a divorce.

This too!

@Bubblesbuddy. Nurses, teachers etc may be able to retire at 60 they don’t all have big pensions and like everyone else don’t get their state pension until their 66 plus.
Get your facts right.

High unemployment didn’t affect professionals much and it didn’t last that long. No one had home tech! Computers were not in homes but we had a bloody good stereo, fantastic nights out at music venues and, oh dear, a small colour tv! We had a great life! We didn’t work that hard but we did get qualifications and made sure we had good jobs.

If they have nursed Or been a teacher from the age of 21, and have worked full time for a reasonable number of years, they really do have decent pensions! When compared to a self employed person with no employer contributions, they are rolling in it. They do not have to buy an annuity and their pensions are not subject to the variations of the stock market as private savings for pensions are. My facts are correct. Yours are not.

What about all the poor old people who are trying to live on the state pension? Are we going to see them rewarded for staying in by giving them enough money to live on for the rest of their lives so they don't have to spend winter making a choice between heating their homes or feeding themselves?

Not every older person has a massive pension and a seven bedroom house that they bought for nothing 50 years ago.

No one just gets a state pension. Benefits too it up. They are also a fairly small minority. It will grow though because lots of private pension schemes will be crap now!

I thought this post was a joke! I see it's not 😱

I was a nurse at 19, first of all could not afford a nhs pension. Then later worked in general practice who couldn’t access the nhs pension until the 1990, so no I haven’t got a big fat pension from the nhs, but nursed for over 40 years.

Even with benefits, padding out the state pension it's still not enough to live comfortably on.

Gosh, you passed your exams really early to be a qualified nurse at 19! Everyone I knew was 21 to be SRN (in those days). Everyone paid into the pension and didn’t opt out. If you opted out, you shouldn’t have done. I didn’t opt out of my pension and I didn’t earn much. My aunt trained as a nurse and only worked for 15 years but became a sister and has a very decent index linked pension.