UK to pay huge benefits price for the millions who’ll rent from cradle to grave

MILLIONS of Britain’s younger generation will never live in a home owned by their parents or themselves.

Millennials will live in rented accommodation from the cradle to the grave, while the bill for housing benefit will soar from £6.3billion to £16billion by 2060, a report warns.

Soaring property prices have pushed down UK levels of home ownership, according to the think tank Resolution Foundation.

If they continue to fall, up to half of millennials will be renting in their 40s and a third, more than five million, will still be tenants when they claim pensions.

In 2016, there were around 16.8 million Britons aged 18 to 36 – about a quarter of the population.

Minefield

If the report’s prediction proves correct, more than five million in that generation will grow up in a rented property, with 8.5 million still not enjoying the security of home-ownership well into their fifth decade.

Lindsay Judge, author and senior policy analyst at Resolution Foundation, said: “Britain’s housing problems have developed into a full-blown crisis over recent decades and young people are bearing the brunt. They are paying a record share of their income on housing in return for living in smaller, rented accommodation.”

As more millennials reach their child-rearing years, the number of offspring born into rented accommodation is also soaring.

In 2003, the number of children in owner-occupied housing outnumbered those in the private rented sector by eight to one. But the ratio has fallen to two to one as a record 1.8 million families with children rent privately, up from 600,000 15 years ago.

Polly Neate, chief executive of charity Shelter, said: “A generation of young renters are struggling with high housing costs meaning they are unable to save money and have no hope of following their parents’ footsteps by buying a home of their own.

“Meanwhile, less conventional renters like families and pensioners are fearful they too will be trapped in private renting for decades to come.”

She added: “On top of eyewateringly high rent, people must also navigate the minefield of poor conditions, rogue landlords and the constant threat of eviction.”

Private renting has grown rapidly in recent decades and, at 30, four in 10 millennials live in this way, double the rate for the previous generation and four times that of baby boomers.

The shift also reflects the fact that millennials’ access to social housing has fallen as fast as home-ownership.

But a Ministry of Housing spokesman said Britain is seeing its highest number of first-time buyers for more than a decade.

“Our Help to Buy scheme and the recent cut in stamp duty are helping more young first-time buyers,” he said.

“We are also helping to ensure that everyone has a safe and decent home by giving councils stronger powers to crack down on bad landlords and consulting on stronger protections for tenants.”