Responding to news that those in their 30s are half as wealthy as those born ten years before them [1], Jonathan Bartley, co –leader of the Green Party, said more social housing and a crackdown on buy-to-let are needed to make housing affordable.
Bartley said:
“In the face of rising house prices and stagnant wages ‘generation rent’ are at the heart of the new age of insecurity. Successive Governments have presided over a decline in decent social homes, and fueled the buy-to-let market and foreign investment making housing unaffordable.
"We need bold new ideas and the political will to ensure diverse housing needs are met and everyone has a secure home. Tax breaks for buy-to-let investors should end to take the heat out of the housing market, and the money used to create a new generation of social housing.
“The use of community land trusts and co-operative home ownership should be expanded, empty property brought back into use and developers stopped from sitting sit on empty land. The purchase of residential property by people who are neither British citizens nor resident in the country, should end.
“Housing should not be a speculative commodity and this is what is needed to ensure that everyone has a place they can call home."
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