The housing crisis

[MotherOfRatios]

Incoming rant, interested to hear what others think the solution is.

I'm mid 20s and I work in public affairs so not earning lots mid £30sk
My job is really focused in London and I do check the civil service website as I'm aware that there is jobs opening up in the north but I haven't found any that I like. Also many jobs continue to be in London for my type of work and no I don't wish to change sector. I love my job and the sector that I work in.

As one thing I see in regards to the housing crisis is change jobs/change where you live. So the above is the caveat that.

Renting is becoming more unaffordable. The average price of a room in London is about £1000. That is also a room, not a flat. (See article below) yes you could move further out, but I am in a job that requires me to be in the office four days a week for my organisation, and I have calculated the cost from commuting towns and it isn't any cheaper, plus I still enjoy a night out with my friends and as a woman I wouldn't feel safe getting an Uber back too my town because trains often don't run at 3am in the morning.

https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/renting/revealed-the-explosion-of-the-ps1-000-room-as-swathes-of-london-become-unaffordable-to-renters-b1072776.html

Some might say well buy a house or buy a flat, but I come from a black working-class family and I don't have the money for a deposit and rent takes up most of my earnings therefore I can't save for a deposit. Plus I've read various negative things about the shared ownership scheme, so even that is an option.

My tenancy on my current flat with my flatmates is coming up soon, and my landlord Landlord wants to raise it by a large amount, we have been looking at new flats, and the current prices are just so unaffordable.

Obviously they should build more social housing, but we have a problem in this country of wage stagnation combined with high house prices.

Does anyone else just wish the government would actually focus on the housing crisis? I have been thinking about low-paid workers in London and how if they can't afford to rent in London does that mean we'll see a mass exodus of waitresses and baristas? Then what happens to the economy? It really irritates me how the government don't take this seriously.

For me it's the landlords who have several BTL properties because they also isn't helping FTBs as we can't compete with them.

Take the dutchy of Lancaster for example and the bit of it I know near forest of Bowland, nofucker would want to live there, well not as affordable housing. No transport links, shit access to motorways,very little work locally.

With regards to building affordable housing on urban regeneration sites the issues are frequently who does the actual building, you still need the developers involved and once they are involved they'll use every trick available to get out of providing affordable housing or even s106 contributions. Most housing associations don't have the facilities to actually build social housing themselves.

Housing crisis will only worsen. Previously worked for a developer now public sector in planning. Reality is politics are the issue and forever will be. The fact that tories are stepping back from targets that aren’t actually meeting needs to begin with (looks good on paper for voters/realistic build rates) speaks volumes.

let’s say in an ideal world government invested money into house building programs for market and social housing. A) where does the money come from? B) developers want to maximise profit like any business and there could be genuine viability or infrastructure issues which affects profit margins. Yes it’s a lot of money generated on site but to keep supply churning it’s a costly business to run. c) council does not like a site or it’s politically suicide in terms of members own agenda. For instance no one likes greenfield/green belt development, the older community objects it goes through appeal delays the process in turn increasing shortage of housing which then increases supply/demand/price.
d) Councils across the country are delaying local plans which identify large scale development because at the moment they are in limbo over what the government intends to do at a national level. Likely awaiting labour to form next government and see how they deliver. Brownfield/regeneration would be great but costly depending on remediation. The other issue is in urban areas the sites preferred are generally are located in the poorer areas where people don’t want to buy in and developers don’t want to build in.

Sorry OP it’s just going to get worse. I would move wherever you can afford to buy and try to find another job, before every house in any area is out of your reach. It will soon be corporate landlords who will own the majority of homes in the UK. Just like in the US where banks are buying more homes than ever. Try getting any repairs done when you’re dealing with a corporate landlord.

Unfortunately I love my job and we need more people of my background in my job.

i refuse to buy a house in a job I'm not happy in

Hi op while I sort of see your point, I do think you need to re-evaluate the importance of getting back home at 3am Vs owning a house...if you do want to own a house at some point. Start saving, save hard, get a second job, move somewhere cheaper so you can save harder, yes it will mean total lifestyle change, but it is doable. One thing is for sure, it's nigh on impossible if living in London and on a low to average wage, only working one job, with no overtime pay.

Personally I don't aspire to home ownership and that's ok

I’ve read this three times and I still dont understand where anything in that sentence will make a difference to housing. Surely the answer is “because humans can’t live in the 7ft space that a car fits in..?”

I think it's clear enough... a car has 2 homes whereas it's owner has none

Anyway....why dredge up a zombie thread?