Your location: Six million stressed about housing
19 June 2008
A massive six million families are suffering stress or depression due to today’s sky-high housing costs, a new report by Shelter shows.
The Breaking Point report also highlights the desperate sacrifices people are making to keep a roof over their heads, including spending less on food, selling possessions, borrowing from friends and family, and depriving their children of treats.
The report, based on a YouGov survey of 6,799 adults in Great Britain, set out to discover what affect Britain’s chronic shortage of affordable homes to buy and rent is having on ordinary people. And the findings are shocking:
- Six million (almost one in four) households are suffering stress or depression because of their housing costs
- Two million say meeting housing costs is a constant struggle, with 400,000 falling behind with rent or mortgage payments
- 6.3 million (one in four) are spending less on food
- Three million (one in nine) have sold possessions
- 2.8 million (11%) have been forced to borrow money to meet their housing costs in the last 12 months
- 4.1 million households (16%) have used a credit card to help meet their housing costs in the last 12 months
The report, launched at the same time as our ‘Now Is The Time’ campaign, says the Government must take immediate action to build more homes, protect people at risk of losing their property and end the widening housing divide between the housing haves and have nots.
Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson said: 'Our new report and campaign show just how difficult it is for ordinary people to cope with spiralling housing costs, and how desperately unaffordable housing has become.
'People are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure they pay their rent or mortgage, but the affects of stress or depression, having to sell possessions or deprive the kids of treats can be devastating to family life.'
The report sets out a detailed 12 point plan to tackle the affordability crisis including calls on the Government to carry out its promise to build three million new homes by 2020, and meet its target to build 45,000 social rented homes every year by 2011.
The plan also calls for mortgage lenders to use repossession only as a last resort, and provide more active and earlier help and support to homeowners; and for the Government to review property taxation to make the system fairer, including council tax, stamp duty, inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
Download the Breaking Point report
Read more about our Now is the Time campaign
