New research reveals that parents’ hopes for their sons and daughters’ futures are being clouded by fears they will never afford their own home, and a belief the main political parties aren’t doing enough to deal with the housing crisis.
As mums and dads wave their children off for the first day of term, new research reveals that parents’ hopes for their sons and daughters’ futures are being clouded by fears they will never afford their own home, and a belief the main political parties aren’t doing enough to deal with the housing crisis.
According to figures from a new YouGov poll for the National Housing Federation, 81 per cent of parents in England of children 18 and under are worried about the impact of rising house prices on the next generation. Over two thirds of parents (69 per cent) fear their children will not be able to buy their own home without financial help from the ‘bank of mum and dad’.
Many parents are making the effort to give the next generation a leg up, with a quarter (25 per cent) already saving money specifically for their children’s first home. At the same time, more than one in twenty (6 per cent) are still reliant on hand outs from their own parents to help with spiralling housing costs.
The National Housing Federation predicts that by 2020 a staggering 3.7million young people, today’s school children, will be living with parents and by 2030 house prices will soar to 13 times the average salary¹.
Toni Longley owns a hairdressing salon in Hull and is mum to Declan (10), Sienna (7) and Tamzin (6). Toni said: “I do make an effort to put a bit of money aside for my children, but as a mum of three I worry that I won’t be able to help each of them with housing costs in future. It’s not just housing we need to think about either; I’d like to be able to support them financially if they want to go to university for instance.
“I was lucky enough that the market was in a good position for me to buy in 2003 when I bought my first home for £32,000. House prices in our home town of Hull have sky rocketed since then and it’s really hard to picture my children being able to afford to afford a house here, let alone anywhere else in the country where houses are even more unaffordable.
“I would be happy for my children to live with us as long as they needed to, but I hope that once they’re ready to spread their wings and become independent they will have the opportunity to set up a home of their own.”
According to the National Housing Federation’s research, over three quarters of parents (76 per cent) believe more attention and investment should be given to affordable housing but 80 per cent do not think any of the main political parties will effectively deal with the issue of housing.
National Housing Federation chief executive, David Orr said: “We can’t let our children become the generation of lost opportunities. Parents should be looking forward to a bright and prosperous future for their children, but are quite rightly alarmed that they will be worse off than them.
“Children are facing the ticking time bomb of being priced out of the communities where they’ve grown up, and unless they are able to borrow from the ‘bank of mum and dad’ many will face living in their childhood bedrooms well into adulthood or renting for the rest of their lives.
“Parents are feeling the pressure to foot the bill to safeguard their children’s futures but they don’t feel any of the mainstream political parties are tackling housing issues. We need the Government to take action to end the housing crisis within a generation, for the next generation.”
