The dream of home ownership
Cllr Tony Newman
Labour group leader at London Borough of Croydon
Tony Newman is a Councillor and the Leader of the Labour group
at the London Borough of Croydon. He is an expert on housing
and currently sits on the Local Government Association’s
Environment and Housing Board.
Twitter: @CllrTony
The dream of home ownership for many people in their twenties and thirties is
rapidly fading. The idea that you simply moved into rented accommodation, perhaps
with a partner to save for a deposit to buy somewhere, is over. Just paying the everincreasing rents in many places in London and the South has become a challenge in
itself.
“The dream of home ownership for many people in their twenties
and thirties is rapidly fading”
Furthermore, we face the prospect for the first time since 1945, of our children being
less well off than their parents. A combination of the global recession and deliberate
policy decisions by this Tory-led coalition to choke off investment and dramatically
cut funding for affordable social housing, have led to a housing crisis in many parts
of the country and a market where demand far outstrips any currently planned future
supply.
The challenge for Labour is two-fold, how can we ensure we are both on the side of
those whose perfectly legitimate aspiration is to own their own home, while also in
the short term have the policy answers that will be credible ahead of the 2015
general election? It is a challenge that as the economy continues to recover becomes
even more daunting.
In my own town of Croydon for instance, we are seeing welcome investment into new
housing. However, something that would have seemed unthinkable even two years
ago, when Croydon was sadly in the news as a major target of the 2011 London riots,
is also happening. Significant overseas investors are buying up virtually entire
apartment blocks before they are actually built, and as a consequence, homes that
could have been for local people are never actually reaching the local marketplace.
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