Liz and Rishi must not ignore Generation Rent

WITH the cost-of-living crisis beginning to hit, the 20- and 30-somethings of Newbury urgently need the help and support of the Government to help them get on the property ladder.

For the last few weeks, we have listened to the debates and hustings of Liz and Rishi.

Between them, they have told us how they are going to stop building on the green belt, slash taxes, outbid each other on the number of refugees they are going to deport and push back against ‘woke’ culture wars, but what are they doing for the 20- to 30-somethings?

Dubbed ‘Generation Rent’ by the press, desperate to get on the property ladder, this is an open goal for any candidate to obtain more votes to become the next Prime Minister.

Yet only 16 per cent of the 200,000 Tory membership is aged 18 to 34, while 47 per cent of members are aged between 55 and 74.

Therefore, it’s not a surprise that neither Liz nor Rishi are speaking daily about the cost of petrol for the daily commute, rising childcare fees or the lack of opportunities for firsttime buyers to purchase their own properties.

(For balance, 16 per cent of Labour’s members are 18 to 34 and 20 per cent for the Lib Dems).

Everyone is feeling the effect on their household budgets with the rise in energy bills, yet, it is the younger generation that are having to cope with the frenzy of rising energy costs the most.

While increasing energy prices will affect all households across the country, younger households are more prone to be disproportionately affected than those on the lowest incomes.

In the financial year ending in 2020, the least well-off 25 per cent of households spent 5.59 per cent on energy compared to 3.9 per cent for the average household.

With 2023 energy bills set to be triple those figures, energy bills for those in the lower quartile will rise to around 16.8 per cent of their household budget.

And let’s look at the housing element of the ‘Generation Rent’ household budget.

The average rental of a Newbury property in the summer of 2020 was £1,065pcm – today it is £1,240pcm.

Overall, rents are 16.4 per cent higher than two years ago – the fastest annual rate of rental growth since records began in 2006.

This increase in rents isn’t standard.

Before 2020, I would have expected to see this level of rent growth over a seven-to-10year period.

Good news for landlords, yet not so for tenants.

So why have rents increased so much? It comes down to fewer rental properties and existing tenants not moving as much.

There are 190 fewer rental properties in Newbury than five years ago, leaving only 3,361 private rental properties.

Nine out of 10 rentals come on to the market because the existing tenant is moving, yet because there are fewer rental properties and the asking rents for those are much higher, many tenants are not moving.

Today, I looked on Rightmove, and there were only 72 properties available to rent. I would have expected that to be over double that.

So, by the end of the first week of September, we will know who the Prime Minister will be.

Whoever gets the job has a gigantic task on their hands.

I wish them luck and ask them not to forget the younger generation and their aspiration to be homeowners.