Conservatives can't ignore the young on housing
As I graduated from university last summer, unlike others before me, my next thought was not, but where will I live? Whilst fortunate enough to be able to move back home with my family, I knew that the bachelor's degree I had just received didn’t automatically assure my future ability to move out.
As I now approach a year outside of education and am faced with a daily onslaught of news reporting on intensifying rent prices, I have to wonder if working for the next 40 plus years will pay off in terms of owning my own home?
Adults living with their parents rose 15 per cent between 2011 and 2021, and as of 2023 around 4.9 million ‘grown-up’ children are yet to leave their family homes. A range of factors such as: increased house and rent prices, the cost-of-living crisis, compounded by a shortage of housing have all contributed to this increasing figure.
As Rishi Sunak looks to garner votes prior to the next general election, his promise for the new era of young adults to become a generation of home owners is compromised when announcing his plans to scrap the 300,000 house building target. The Prime Minister even stated how although he thought that the “vast majority of people want to own a home” his fellow Tory members and councilors showed “no support” for the initiative. Simply put, he chose to keep sclerotic party members happy to avoid a rebellion over the future of the housing crisis.
The shortage of homes is not the only problem. Whilst house prices have fallen 1.3 per cent in the last six months, soaring mortgage rates of 6.66 per cent are keeping homes empty and affordable living unachievable.
The future of home ownership is concerning. It is made worse by the fact that it is amplifying wealth inequality, as those whose parents are home owners are more likely to also become owners than those whose parents rent. These parents are usually more likely to help their children get a foot-up on the property ladder, either by contributing to loans for the property’s deposit, helping to set up ISA’s or even giving them a lump sum of cash without the worry of inheritance tax. In 2022, data from the mortgage technology company, Twenty7Tec, found that 64.4 per cent of first time buyers secured their mortgages with parent/family help.
Homeownership doesn’t just help establish economic security, it has a statistical influence on a person’s sense of belonging by giving them a concrete stake in the community, a perception less likely to be felt by those renting. According to a recent comparethemarket.com survey, 73 per cent of people see buying their first home as an integral milestone central to fulfilling their adult life.
Tory rhetoric has historically been attached to private property, as it correlates closely with principles of stability and security. Noel Skelton’s coinage of “property owning democracy” was envisioned to make democracy “stable and four-square”. The constructive Conservative thinker sought a society where the wage earner had “property and status”, and thus privately owned property acts as a means for moral and economic development of the individual.
This aspirational goal of buying a home continued throughout Conservative ideology, from Churchill’s dedication to a “personal property owning democracy” to Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme. However, the Conservatives' commitment to ownership has evidently halted, opening space for Labour leader Keir Starmer to brand his party as the party of home ownership. After all, homeownership was at its peak in 2003 (71 per cent) during the middle of a 13-year Labour government.
Sunak’s hesitation to act on this issue could have something to do with the fact that 94 per cent of owner-occupiers are registered voters, compared to only 63 per cent of renters. In this regard, the latter group may not be of top priority for electoral votes.
Nevertheless, a recent YouGov poll found that only 8 per cent of those in the 18-24 age bracket would vote Conservative. Even more striking is how that figure only increases to 10 per cent for the 29-49 age group. Whilst it is often joked that these young voters will turn to the right later in life once having found a sense of ‘stability’, will that be true for the majority who are still awaiting a key condition of this: the right to own their home.
What was once seen as an accustomed part of growing up and gaining independence, now seems more and more unattainable. House prices are on average nine times a person’s average earnings, and our current government is showing a less than willing approach to tackle this issue.
As people get older, often, a resistance to change is brought upon them. However, perhaps this acceptance for the status quo that is indicative of older Tory voters will not persist. Perhaps it cannot persist when the status quo is no longer favorable towards them.
Sylvie Macdonald is a political and media consultant at Bridgehead Communications.
