We are the lucky ones to have our own home
If we needed an indication of how much British family life has changed, we need look no further than the statistic which shows more than half of adults in their early 20s still live at home.
Data taken from the most recent Census in 2021, shows that the number of 20 to 24 year-olds who have yet to fly the nest is now just under five million - an increase of 15 per cent on 10 years earlier. According to the very clever people at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), this has nothing to do with the fact that these figures were taken when the nation was beginning its slow, painful Covid recovery and when some families were clingingonto their bubble. No, this is what they call a ‘continuing trend’.
Generation Z really do have it harder than we did. If you haven’ t already, I dare you to ask a twenty-something when they intend to buy a house rather than continue to pay a small fortune in rent for the draughty one bedroom broom cupboard that they call home. The long weary sight hat this slightly ridiculousquestion will be met with will then be followed by a well rehearsed monologue about the size of a deposit needed, which is near impossible to achieve with the cost of rent these days and that’s before they even think about their own student debt mountain. This is a real problem, not just for younger people, but for the economy in general as the house market requires first time buyers for the whole thing to keep tic king over. New products such as 40- year mortgages and deals that require a rent history rather than a deposit that resembles the national debt of a small country have been introduced to give younger people a leg up onto the ladder.
The alternative to this of course is to put off leaving home longer than you would perhaps otherwise want to. I left home shortly after my 18th birthday, moving into a box room, which I didn’t clean for the year and a half I lived there. Far from being independent,I still got my washing and shopping done for me and it wasn’t until I moved 250 miles away aged 19 that I really did have to stand on my own two feet. I quickly learned to budget, although my weekly rent, which came in at under £50, meant I didn’t have to live on cold baked beans and could go out up to three times a week. It was a care free existence but one that gave me lots of life skills, which eventually led to Mrs Tapp and I buying our first home when we were 26. Back then we used to bemoan our lot and cast an envious eye towardsthe comparatively well off Baby Boomers. These days, we are the lucky ones.