Leave all your estate to the grandchildren
Let inheritance skip a generation, says minister
PARENTS should ‘disinherit’ their children and pass homes and savings straight to their grandchildren, the housing minister has argued.
Gavin Barwell said his mother will leave her estate and £750,000 home to his three sons and two nephews – and said others should also consider skipping a generation.
Mr Barwell said this could ease the housing crisis and combat ‘ inter- generational unfairness’ by helping the young to get a foot on the housing ladder. He said: ‘We all like to think our children are going to be better off than us. In terms of life expectancy and new technology, they are going to be. But as things stand they are less likely to own their own home and we need to do something about that.’
He made the comments at a fringe event at the Tory Party conference last week, the Daily Telegraph reported.
He said: ‘There is a job here to make very strongly the moral case to people about why these homes are needed. There is a profound inter-generational unfairness that has been created over a number of years. I have got a nice home, I have got three kids and my mother has just disinherited my brother and I in order that she can pass her assets on to her five grandchildren. They will be OK.’
But Mr Barwell admitted he does not ‘want to live in a country where you have to have a wealthy grandparent to have a chance of getting on the housing ladder’, adding: ‘We should always be thinking about this desperate need to build more homes.’
His comments received a lukewarm response from campaign groups. Paul Green, of pensioners’ group Saga, said elderly people do not want to be ‘lectured’, adding: ‘It must be for those who have worked hard to own their home to decide to whom they leave it when they die. We know there are many generous grandparents passing their hard-earned wealth to their children and grandchildren.’
Last week Mrs May said the housing market was ‘dysfunctional’ and that more needs to be done to help first-time buyers. Yesterday research by retirement adviser Age Partnership showed that over-55s in England hold more wealth in the value of their homes than the GDP of Italy – £1.5trillion compared to £1.4trillion.