London’s broken housing will destroy the economy – and the Conservative Party
Young people are spending a third or more of their salaries on rent. That should scare the Tories.
Henry Hill
Photo by Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images
That the housing market in London and the south-east of England is broken seems to be broadly accepted by everybody except the politicians who could do anything about it and out-of-touch boomers with nice houses they bought in the Nineties. Yet even for people as empathy deficient as the “let them quit avocados” brigade, the news that four in ten people under 30 are spending 30 per cent (or more) of their salaries on rent ought to be a cause for concern.
The renters are of course the most obvious losers, caught between rising rents and energy bills and inflation pushing up the cost of leisure and essentials. But they aren’t the only ones. The young are more likely than older people to actually spend their money in the wider economy. Any hit to their fortunes will have a disproportionate impact on businesses such as restaurants and the ailing night-time economy.
Cramped conditions can also have secondary effects on income and wellbeing which aren’t immediately obvious. For example, inadequate fridge and freezer space – not uncommon in crowded house shares – can preclude bulk buying and batch cooking, forcing renters to pay more to eat and pushing them towards junk food too.
Ant Breach of the Centre for Cities has further argued that the pain extends far beyond the south, too, because if richer southerners had more disposable income they could spend more of their money “importing” goods and services produced in the parts of the country the government intends to “level up”.
One might have expected the Conservatives to think a market-led approach would be the ideal way to try to close the gap between north and south. Then again, perhaps the most honest summary of levelling up was offered by Boris Johnson when he told the Tory conference that it was about avoiding building homes near Stoke Poges, so perhaps not.
The political consequences of all this for the Conservatives could be disastrous. Voters who see their quality of life declining month-on-month aren’t going to be inclined to return the governing party at the next scheduled general election in 2024.
The long-term trends are perhaps even more dangerous. For starters, the exorbitant cost of living in London is changing England’s electoral geography, with more and more voters pushed out of the capital into the commuter belt, and formerly true-blue seats put at risk as a result.
Even if the Tories were prepared to go to the wall for the sake of leafy Home Counties villages, they would – if they had a better grasp of their own interests – implement bold reform in London, if only to keep Labour voters in it. With a substantial majority and only a handful of London parliamentary seats marginal, whoever wins the leadership should commit to a bold Metropolitan Planning Bill to crack open the capital’s housing market. Sadly, neither candidate looks likely to do anything of the sort.
On the sociological level, all this means it is increasingly difficult for younger people to accrue capital, acquire property, and settle down and start a family. Without this, the Tory assumption that young people shift rightwards as they get older will cease to be true. Why would they?
Good let it burn. I’m done having to watch as everyone else’s futures it’s fucked up because all that matters is rising house prices and nothing else.
Unpopular opinion: it’s not London prices that are unreasonable. It’s prices in all the rest of the country that are too high relatively to London ones.
London prices are not too far away from those of other metropolitan areas of similar size. Actually, they are not so bad relatively to Paris.
However… how can a small 1970s terraced house in the middle of fucking nowhere cost £250,000-400,000? A *new* apartment in London (where, by the way, bills would be 300-400 pounds per year, not a couple thousands) of similar size would range £350,000-500,000 in a decent area.
It already did destroy the economy in 2008.
If young people can’t afford to buy will inheritance became the main way of acquiring wealth?
We talk about how things are going to be disastrous for the conservatives, but if we look at how many governments we’ve had over the years, there have been far more bloody conservatives than anyone else!
This leads me to conclude that we are a nation that hate ourselves and others, that we allow them to continually wreck the country and the population.
Everyone knows this is the fault of bloody furriners
The problem is rent prices are now not that far off London in alot of places in the country. The rest of England is catching up to London
Anyone know where that shot was taken? Photo looks great.
This is an odd take when the massive rent and house price rises the last two years has been outside of London.
We need interest rates up to 7 or 8%. Pull that plaster off quickly and bring property prices down to a level where young workers can afford to buy a home rather than line the pockets of landlords. Rental rates will follow.
I’m a 50 year old home owner and I think our property situation in this country is unfair. Especially here in that London.
Honestly instead of Brexit London should have fucked off to become its own city state
It’s not only housing but also commercial property. If you want to start a small business and you need an office or a workshop, it’s just too expensive.
It seems like it is all set up for people to lose everything and not even have the ability to rebuild their lives.
We will become slaves in our own country.
> London’s broken housing will destroy the economy
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London’s broken housing will destroy the economy – and the Conservative Party
Young people are spending a third or more of their salaries on rent. That should scare the Tories.
Henry Hill
Photo by Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images
That the housing market in London and the south-east of England is broken seems to be broadly accepted by everybody except the politicians who could do anything about it and out-of-touch boomers with nice houses they bought in the Nineties. Yet even for people as empathy deficient as the “let them quit avocados” brigade, the news that four in ten people under 30 are spending 30 per cent (or more) of their salaries on rent ought to be a cause for concern.
The renters are of course the most obvious losers, caught between rising rents and energy bills and inflation pushing up the cost of leisure and essentials. But they aren’t the only ones. The young are more likely than older people to actually spend their money in the wider economy. Any hit to their fortunes will have a disproportionate impact on businesses such as restaurants and the ailing night-time economy.
Cramped conditions can also have secondary effects on income and wellbeing which aren’t immediately obvious. For example, inadequate fridge and freezer space – not uncommon in crowded house shares – can preclude bulk buying and batch cooking, forcing renters to pay more to eat and pushing them towards junk food too.
Ant Breach of the Centre for Cities has further argued that the pain extends far beyond the south, too, because if richer southerners had more disposable income they could spend more of their money “importing” goods and services produced in the parts of the country the government intends to “level up”.
One might have expected the Conservatives to think a market-led approach would be the ideal way to try to close the gap between north and south. Then again, perhaps the most honest summary of levelling up was offered by Boris Johnson when he told the Tory conference that it was about avoiding building homes near Stoke Poges, so perhaps not.
The political consequences of all this for the Conservatives could be disastrous. Voters who see their quality of life declining month-on-month aren’t going to be inclined to return the governing party at the next scheduled general election in 2024.
The long-term trends are perhaps even more dangerous. For starters, the exorbitant cost of living in London is changing England’s electoral geography, with more and more voters pushed out of the capital into the commuter belt, and formerly true-blue seats put at risk as a result.
Even if the Tories were prepared to go to the wall for the sake of leafy Home Counties villages, they would – if they had a better grasp of their own interests – implement bold reform in London, if only to keep Labour voters in it. With a substantial majority and only a handful of London parliamentary seats marginal, whoever wins the leadership should commit to a bold Metropolitan Planning Bill to crack open the capital’s housing market. Sadly, neither candidate looks likely to do anything of the sort.
On the sociological level, all this means it is increasingly difficult for younger people to accrue capital, acquire property, and settle down and start a family. Without this, the Tory assumption that young people shift rightwards as they get older will cease to be true. Why would they?
Good let it burn. I’m done having to watch as everyone else’s futures it’s fucked up because all that matters is rising house prices and nothing else.
Unpopular opinion: it’s not London prices that are unreasonable. It’s prices in all the rest of the country that are too high relatively to London ones.
London prices are not too far away from those of other metropolitan areas of similar size. Actually, they are not so bad relatively to Paris.
However… how can a small 1970s terraced house in the middle of fucking nowhere cost £250,000-400,000? A *new* apartment in London (where, by the way, bills would be 300-400 pounds per year, not a couple thousands) of similar size would range £350,000-500,000 in a decent area.
It already did destroy the economy in 2008.
If young people can’t afford to buy will inheritance became the main way of acquiring wealth?
We talk about how things are going to be disastrous for the conservatives, but if we look at how many governments we’ve had over the years, there have been far more bloody conservatives than anyone else!
This leads me to conclude that we are a nation that hate ourselves and others, that we allow them to continually wreck the country and the population.
Everyone knows this is the fault of bloody furriners
The problem is rent prices are now not that far off London in alot of places in the country. The rest of England is catching up to London
Anyone know where that shot was taken? Photo looks great.
This is an odd take when the massive rent and house price rises the last two years has been outside of London.
We need interest rates up to 7 or 8%. Pull that plaster off quickly and bring property prices down to a level where young workers can afford to buy a home rather than line the pockets of landlords. Rental rates will follow.
I’m a 50 year old home owner and I think our property situation in this country is unfair. Especially here in that London.
Honestly instead of Brexit London should have fucked off to become its own city state
It’s not only housing but also commercial property. If you want to start a small business and you need an office or a workshop, it’s just too expensive.
It seems like it is all set up for people to lose everything and not even have the ability to rebuild their lives.
We will become slaves in our own country.
> London’s broken housing will destroy the economy
Oh no 🙁
> and the Conservative Party
I guess every cloud does have a silver lining! 🙂
Let the Conservative party die