We need to go further and faster to ensure that the dream of owning a home remains achievable for future generations

Housing affordability has been getting worse for decades, with house prices rising far more than wages. In the current market, it’s fair to suggest that the affordability of home ownership is a contradiction in terms. Everyone who has tried to buy a home recently, or knows someone who has, knows how difficult and expensive it has become.

Over 20 years, the rate of home ownership has dropped from 71% to 63%. It is even worse for young adults: the rate of home ownership for 27-year-olds fell from 43% to 25% not over 20 years, but in 10.

It is deeply unfair that someone’s chance of owning a home is more dependent on whether their parents own a home than their own earnings. That is unacceptable and needs to change. As one of 11 MPs on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, I have been looking at ways we can address this challenge.

This year, we’ve been conducting an inquiry into the barriers faced by first-time buyers and those on lower incomes, both in accessing home ownership and in staying on the housing ladder – as well as how interventions such as financial products and Government policies can help people overcome those challenges.

First and foremost, we need more homes. The Government is right to address the historical undersupply, and I support their target to provide 1.5 million new homes by the end of the Parliament. Unfortunately, I fear they’re unlikely to meet that target and, even if they do, that 1.5 million new homes may not be enough. The last time homes in this country were built at the pace required to hit that Government target was over 50 years ago.

As it stands, 75% of home building is done by private developers, who are seeking to make a profit. With the costs of building rising, they’re simply choosing not to build the homes we need. In my constituency of Woking alone, over 2,000 homes in and around the town centre alone have got permission, but none of these are under construction.
That’s why my committee has asked the Ministry to write to us twice a year about its actions – and progress on increasing home building rates by developers.

We’ve also pushed the Government to introduce other measures to increase the housing supply, including using the hundreds of thousands of homes around the country that are lying empty.

Those homes are an unused stockpile – and whilst councils do already have some powers to take control of vacant homes, those powers carry risks and are rarely used. We want the Government to make existing powers easier to understand and use, and to provide new powers where necessary.

It was clear from our inquiry that high loan-to-value mortgages are vital for first-time buyers. These products are becoming more widely available, but lenders must go further. It is simply not right that someone can be refused a mortgage because they supposedly cannot afford the repayments when those repayments would actually be lower than the rent they already paying every month.

Government-backed savings products designed to help people buy their first home also have a place in helping people get onto the housing ladder. The current Lifetime ISA has significant flaws, so I welcome the Government’s commitment to replacing it with a new first-time buyer ISA. However, this new scheme must work for buyers across the country, including in areas such as Surrey where house prices are particularly high.

On top of this, stronger regulation of property agents and a fundamental review of stamp duty are essential. The current system discourages people from moving, downsizing or relocating for work. It acts as a brake on the housing market and ultimately damages economic growth.

Three years ago, I bought my first home on my own. I know how difficult that process can be. But today, for too many people across the country, home ownership is not merely difficult – it feels impossible.

That must change. The Government needs to go further and faster to ensure that the dream of owning a home remains achievable for future generations.