Drop in home ownership to 30-year low

Home ownership has fallen to its lowest level for 30 years, with nearly half of young adults in England renting privately. Home ownership fell to 62.9 per cent last year, the lowest level since 1985, the English Housing Survey found. One household in five is in private rented accommodation.

HOME OWNERSHIP in England has fallen to its lowest level for 30 years, with nearly half of young adults now renting privately, official figures show.

The level of home ownership fell to 62.9 per cent last year, the lowest proportion since 1985 and eight points lower than the peak in 2003.

The figures also show that 46.1 per cent of people between the ages of 25 and 34 are renting privately, up from 24.2 per cent in 2005-06.

Overall, one household in five in England is living in private rented accommodation. The total number of privately renting households has increased by around a million since 2010 to hit a post-1980 high of 4.5 million.

The English Housing Survey, released by the Department for Communities and Local Government, also found that private renters spend an average of 35 per cent of their income on housing, compared with 28 per cent for renters in council or housing association properties and 18 per cent for owner-occupiers.

Councils have issued a plea for Government action to boost social housing, which declined to 17.2 per cent of households, after first falling behind the private rented sector in 2011-12.

Labour accused the Conservatives of presiding over “seven years of failure on housing”, pointing out that the total number of home owners has fallen by 200,000 on their watch, after rising during most of Labour’s time in office.

John Healey, the shadow housing minister, said: “The number of people stuck in an insecure and increasingly expensive private rented sector has grown dramatically over the last seven years. After seven years of failure on housing, not only has home ownership fallen, but affordable housebuilding has hit a 24-year low and rough sleeping has more than doubled.”

Judith Blake, a spokesman for the Local Government Association on housing, said the figures showed “a desperate need to reverse the longterm and continuing decline in council housing” in England. “A drop in social and affordable rented homes is combining with private sector rents rising above incomes to make it more and more difficult for people to get on the housing ladder,” she said.

A Government spokesman said that home-ownership rates had remained broadly stable for three years and the Conservatives had “halted” a period of decline which began under Labour’s watch in 2003.

The number of homes purchased in 2010 was 40 per cent lower than in 1997, when Labour came to power, the spokesman said.

“New housebuilding and the number of first-time buyers are now at the highest level for almost a decade,” he said. “But we know that there is more to do to fix this country’s broken housing market and to make Britain a country that truly works for everyone.” Allister Heath: Business page 2