The predicament of the Newbury 20 to 30 year olds who rent and their inability to get onto the housing ladder is often discussed in the press.
There are 4.43m properties in the UK that are still in the private rented sector (compared to 2.13m in 2002). This group of people in their 20s and 30’s, who rent from a private landlord, are often called ‘Generation Rent’.
Yet would it surprise you that since 2017, the number of UK households in the private rented sector has reduced by 260,000 whilst the number of homeowners has increased by 1.1m?
On the other end of the scale, the rising number of older homeowners who want to downsize their home are often held back by the lack of suitable housing options for older people.
Lots of over 50’s cannot move home in the way that they would like, due to a lack of suitable housing options and so can find themselves ‘stuck’ in homes which are no longer suitable for them as they age.
According to the Census, 47.8% of homes occupied by 50 to 64 year olds have two or more spare bedrooms.
57.2% of West Berkshire 50 to 64 year olds have two or more spare bedrooms, making it the 46th highest local authority in the country(out of 348 local authorities). Staggeringly only 1 in 29 people over the age of 50 move home each year, compared to 1 in 15 for the rest of the population.
Helping mature Newbury homeowners to downsize their homes at the right time will also allow younger people (Generation Rent) to find the Newbury family homes they need – meaning every generation wins, both young and old.
However, to ensure downsizing works, we need more choices for these “last-time-buyers”. That means building more bungalows or more ground floor apartments suitable for the middle to older generation.
One way this could be done is by changing the planning rules to force builders to build these types of properties, whilst the other could be the changing of the stamp duty tax breaks for downsizers.
In this way, older people will be more able to move into homes which suit their specific needs, improve their quality of life whilst meeting their goals in life, all without them becoming detached from their friends and family locally in the Newbury area.
These are my thoughts, please let me know yours.
