Star comment: Better housing policies needed to help people get on the ladder
Another day, another housing report. The Halifax report, like the earlier one from Nationwide, all suggest that the West Midlands is enjoying a buoyant housing market in comparison to other parts of the country.
What is for sure is that, once our current economic blip, comes to an end, house prices are likely to rise.
That will be good news for those already on the property ladder but devastating news for those who are now and who have been excluded from the market by punitive interest rates.
There appears to be an absence of policy to help people who have been squeezed by an overheating rental sector and who simply don’t have the wherewithal to afford a property of their home.
With rents also gong up rapidly, many young people are destined to be staying in the Hotel of Mum and Dad for the forseeable future - and if they want to move out they’ll have to apply to the Bank of Mum and Dad.
The issue is particularly relevant for this region, where a number of people are forced to move away to secure better-paid jobs, which help them onto the housing ladder, or who move to parts of the UK where property prices and rents are lower.
The position remains stark for too many who are left to their own devices as society splits into an owning class and a renting class. We can be grateful that the markets are steadier under the guidance of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. But it is an undeniable fact that too many are being left behind or have nowhere to go.
Better housing policies have been required for decades and successive Governments have done too little to help.
