If everything had risen at the same rate as housing our lives would be untenable. A dozen eggs would cost £9.30, a bunch of bananas £7.86 and a pack of button mushrooms £8.49*. You can imagine the cost of a weekly shop.
We couldn’t and wouldn’t accept it. Yet we do when it comes to housing, even though the effects are just as crippling. It’s now reached a point where it doesn’t just influence, but dictates, virtually every decision we make – from our choice and place of work to when we have children.
It establishes rifts within society between the housing haves and have-nots.The situation can’t go on and now is the perfect time to demand action from politicians.
Take action to fight for affordable housing:
- Tell us how unaffordable housing is affecting you.
- Email your MP. You can use our template or draft your own message.
- Sign up as an e-campaigner
- Spread the word. More than anything, we need people to care, lots of people. Join our Facebook and Twitter groups, tell everyone you know, get the conversation started.
Comments
Well call me a nazi as you will, but until the spineless stand up and realise that the majority of social housing is being wasted on people who have not even paid into the system, whilst those that have end up in homeless hostels full of drug addicts and alcholics, then we will always have a big problem, of course nothing will ever be done about it, england is finished just a dumping a ground. I cant wait to leave here...
Posted by Dan on 18 Mar 2010 at 3:16pm
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Both I and my partner for ten years went to university and work in decent jobs earning above average wages but home ownership is not possible because of events of the last five years. I refer specifically to the property bubble our government still seeks to maintain artificially through our taxes. We're both "keyworkers" but shared ownership is a woolly-minded scheme to prop up inflated prices. I think more and more people are becoming aware of this deliberate attempt by the government to bamboozle its brighter citizens. How long will it be before social unrest kicks off? I don't think the UK has been so wilfully divided by the ruling powers since the corn laws. Homes are for humans. Leave investors out of it. Also, homebuilders ought not be public limited companies (PLCs) desperate for a quick buck to satisfy the interests of shareholders.
Posted by Mike on 17 Mar 2010 at 8:40pm
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House prices are unaffordable in London were I live. The only people who can afford to live here are those on benefits (or lucky enough to have a council house) and the super-rich. My husband and I have worked all our lives, paid tax and NI, yet for £1k per month we have the priviledge of renting a tiny, shabby, 50sq meter flat whose owners want at least £250k to buy (not including the 30k lease) and this is a suburban North London ex-council flat. For the equivalent cost you could buy a palacial mansion in Texas with great weather to boot. The UK is finished, quality of life is rubbish and unaffordable to those who have to work. Many can't even afford to work since benefits pay so much more. The situation is terrible.
Posted by Raine Garrison on 12 Mar 2010 at 8:25pm
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Me and my partner both earn what we think is a decent enough wage. But can we afford a house? Not even on both our incomes. We're not getting any younger and we'd love to have a baby but at the moment we're sub renting a council flat. Naturally we want something more stable before starting a family. But what can we do? I just don't understand it. Is owning your own home considered a luxury reserved only for the rich? Also, I've looking into shared ownership deals. Does anyone else think this is an expensive con designed to keep prices artificially high? If people can't afford your new build houses, lower the godamn prices!
Posted by Im on 10 Mar 2010 at 5:20pm
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One thing that completely puzzles me is the way rises in property prices are cheered and seen as a positive economic indicator when high property do immense social and economic damage. If the price of food, fuel, clothes went up the same extent as property has done in recent years, people would be up in arms.
Posted by Ian on 09 Mar 2010 at 11:23pm
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It is not just the unfair house prices and rentals, it is also the lack of housing benefit to support those in need for the under 25s, which makes everything a struggle to begin one's independant life! How is it fair to say up to the age of 25 you are only entitled to half your rent? What happened to abolishing the single room rent??? Is it cheaper to live up to the age of 25? I think not. I take supported housing placements and homeless placements and many have to stay in scummy hostels when they leave me and stay on the waiting list for a council property because they cannot afford to get a privately rented place due to lack of housing benefit!
Posted by JQ on 05 Mar 2010 at 8:57am
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I am 39 and recently had to give notice on a one bed flat i was renting for £920 per month! i simply couldn't afford it anymore. I was a property owner once, but divorce forced sale.I have no deposit to purchase another property, no bank of mum and dad, unable to save because of cost of renting. What does one do! I am now renting a room from a friend. I work and earn around £30k, an average salary i guess, but i can only look forward to buying a one bed box flat, no doubt with open plan kitchen/living room, and service charge at £120 per month!. Not much hope really, unless i win the lottery!
Posted by ringo smith on 04 Mar 2010 at 12:03pm
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Fantastic campaign! I've spent most of my life wondering why no-one has noticed that house prices are ridiculous for the majority to pay. I knew a woman who was 73 and still working full-time - she had health problems and had to have repeated operations onm her eyes - but she had to keep working, as she had a mortgage to pay! What kind of madness is that? I am 25, earn an alright salary, went to Uni, did all the stuff I was lead to believe was the route out of the poverty I was born into and towards having a good, comfortable life. I cannot see how I will ever be able to afford a house. I don't have any inheritance now because my dad is severly disabled, and the government took his house and assets to pay for his estate. Cheers for that. And, as I work for a housing charity, I know that my story is FAR from the worst one out there. How can the government expect people to go on like this? Arrears and reposessions have been steadily climbing for a while now. It just seems wrong to me that an ordinary, hard-working, decent person can't get on the property ladder.
Posted by Leah on 03 Mar 2010 at 9:21pm
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I am sorry but intrigued to see the reality
Posted by I am sorry but intrigued to see the reality... on 01 Mar 2010 at 1:28am
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Posted by Paul on 18 Mar 2010 at 8:46pm
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