Agenda 2019

Over 40% of former council homes now owned by private landlords as housing crisis deepens in the home ownership and rented accommodation sectors.  Former council homes sold under Right-to-Buy are being on the private rental market    There is a housing crisis in the United Kingdom. The "Right to buy scheme" is just one of the contributing factors. In the early 1980's many of us were predicting the very crisis which we are now experiencing. It is to the eternal shame of successive governments since 1979 right up until today, that hundreds of thousands of people today are unable to afford a home of their own, either owned or rented, due to the high price level of homes for purchase or homes for rent, particularly in the private rental sector. These high prices levels are the consequence of an acute shortage of houses being built, which is the undeniable result of decades of government neglect or even government intention to restrict the house building programme....

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/oct/16/average-monthly-rent-hits-record-high-of-816-highlighting-housing-shortage Average monthly rent hits record high of £816     Social housing should be built to suit a range of incomes   A report which underlines the simple economic reality that, where there is a shortage of a commodity, in this case rented accommodation specifically, but emphasised by a housing shortage generally,  the price level of the available "stock" will increase. We have seen the level of rents increase significantly over recent years and with some regional variations, has increased in the past 12 months alone, by between 6.3% and 8.5% with a fall in Wales and the North of England.   Higher rents combined with the growth in property values mean that landlords in England and Wales have seen returns of 9.4% over the past year. Landlords have plenty to be happy about, suggested Adrian Gill, director of Your Move and Reeds Rains....

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/07/pm-cameron-vows-scrap-rules-forcing-developers-build-affordable-homes-for-rent Cameron vows to scrap requirement to build affordable homes for rent   Cameron will encourage developers to increase the building of homes for first-time buyers. Cameron either by accident or more probably design, conveniently ignores hundreds of thousands of people in this country who will never be able to afford to buy either low cost first time buyer homes or "affordable" homes. This country has a housing crisis created by successive governments, where people are unable to buy or cannot afford to rent. Tinkering at the margin with the vague prospect of owning a home at sometime in the future, is a not very well disguised bribe to attract votes, which has been the way of things for decades and has failed miserably. What this country desperately needs is a housing programme to build at least 800,000 new homes of which a minimum of 75% ...