On Thursday this week, alongside my Liberal Democrat colleague Gideon Amos, I led a Westminster Hall Debate on the housing needs of young people.
Across the United Kingdom, the promise that each generation will have better prospects than the last is quietly slipping away, and nowhere is that more evident than in housing. A safe, secure home is the foundation on which people build their lives. Yet for millions of young people, that foundation feels increasingly out of reach. Home ownership should be a platform for young people to leave home, form relationships, start families, feel invested in their communities, and build a stake in the country they call home.
When housing becomes unattainable, those life milestones are delayed or denied altogether.
Current data reflects what many of us see in our constituencies every day. A growing number of young adults are living with their parents well into their 20s and 30s—not out of preference, but necessity. When a third of men aged 20 to 34 and over a fifth of women of the same age remain at home, it signals not a cultural shift but a systemic failure. These are not choices freely made; they are constraints imposed by a market that has outpaced wages and affordability.
Nowhere is the imbalance more acute than in the private rented sector. For those on the lowest incomes, rent consumes nearly two-thirds of earnings. Even average renters are spending far beyond what any reasonable definition would call affordable. This leaves little room to save, trapping young people in a cycle where they pay vast sums each month yet cannot move closer to ownership. Over time, the scale of this becomes stark: tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds paid in rent before the possibility of buying even enters reach.
That is not a system that rewards effort or aspiration—it is one that extracts wealth from younger generations and redistributes it elsewhere. It is why I have called for serious consideration of alternatives such as rent-to-buy schemes, which could help convert those years of renting into a pathway toward ownership. I have urged the Government to work with the Liberal Democrats on the rent-to-buy scheme.
Squeezing young people out of the housing market has broader impacts. Communities become less stable when young people cannot put down roots. Wealth inequality deepens when access to home ownership depends increasingly on family support rather than individual effort. Those without access to family wealth are left at a structural disadvantage, widening the divide between those who can get on the ladder and those who cannot.
The economic effects are equally concerning. When young people are priced out of living near work, talent is lost or pushed elsewhere. When so much income is tied up in rent, spending in local economies declines. The vitality of communities—cafes, cultural spaces, small businesses—begins to erode.
It is important to challenge a persistent and unhelpful narrative: young people are not failing because of lifestyle choices or lack of discipline. They are working, saving and striving within a system that makes progress extraordinarily difficult. What they are asking for is not special treatment, but a fair chance—the chance to build a life of their own. It is a chance that previous generations have had.
I was pleased to hear that the Government have agreed to work with the Liberal Democrats to address the housing needs of young people. The current Government have an enormous majority and, if used properly, the opportunity to give young people real hope. This Government must listen to and work with young people to deliver the homes they need and deserve.
