I guess those who can’t afford a place of their own are accommodated as multiple households in a single family home - with mum and dad to you and I - until prices go back down to a sensible level and mortgages cost less to buy. Once this has happened, we will all be able to spend more of our money on things other than the nesting materials, and have conversations about things other than mortgage deals :-)

Most young people and families are finding it very difficult to afford decent accomadation. The cost of rental property is rising. It is very difficult for young people to get on the first rung of the housing ladder. Of course, Amoral New Labour and their anti family campaigners with no regard for marriage or family values- will continue to discriminate or oppose any who have a social conscience.
This is a good and timely article, Julia.

I’m not sure the article is that good Bart, I suspect you may just be trying to butter up one of the journalists because you see this piece as a good stick to beat Labour with.
My view (I have a separate one to Labour despite the compliance chip!) is that homes need to be more affordable in the South East, where buildings have been overpriced for years and have excluded huge numbers of people from buying anything. I’ve never really seen much justification for housing being worth more when you flog it than when you buy it, in fact I can’t think of any other high street goods where this is expected to happen. If the current warped sense of values only contributed to the production of rubbish television programmes and shallow dinner party conversations I wouldn’t mind so much. But the real damage is done by helping to fuel a completely false economy based on nothing very stable at all. I agree that the banks are the last people to take guidance from on lending, since they simply peddle the myth that they are there to meet the needs of borrowers - which has of course never been true and is even less so when times are tight. Way back in history (early 1980s) banks weren’t even trusted to grant mortgages. But once the mortgage market was deregulated by the blessed Margaret, (possibly to aid the sell off of council housing) the banks were allowed to tussle with building societies over who could lend the highest multiple of salary and drive up house prices.
We are where we are, through de-regulation of finance, changing household needs and under supply. In stark terms the only long term solution is to build enough of what we need at the prices we can afford and while the Tories are quick to try and point the finger, I don’t see them supporting that sort of policy in the South East.

What Martin fails to understand is that New Labour has very little regard for family values and marriage. Their disabling policies make it very difficult for young people to get onto the first rung of the housing ladder or to buy decent homes for their families.