People under 45 are paying 66% of all rent in Britain. This amounted to a record £56.2bn for 2024, according to research from housing agents Hamptons. The total amount of rent paid by under 45s has increased by a startling 59% over the past decade, reflecting eye-watering price increases as much as additional renters.
The scam and the solution
The thing is, landlords do not provide housing. They simply set up an extortionate toll gate between people and shelter. They middle-man between us and builders in an atmosphere of artificial scarcity. Instead, the state should provide housing at cost price for people, paid back in affordably monthly sums. This would pop the housing bubble, bringing down the price of housing across the board.
From 1995 to 2020, the ‘value’ of UK housing wealth increased from £1 trillion to £5.7 trillion. What’s ridiculous is that banks create new money to fund large mortgages that, in turn, inflate the price of housing.
According to the Office of National Statistics, average UK private rents increased by 9.1% in the year up until November 2024.
High inflation, high interest rates
The Bank of England raised interest rates in response to the inflation crisis, which is partly caused by our lack of a Green New Deal for energy and lack of price controls or public ownership for essentials. Higher mortgage rates mean even less people can afford to buy a home a home, contributing to the number of under 45s renting rising by 149,000 to 3,4 million last year. Indeed, prices are so expensive that as of 2022, homes cost as much – relative to average earnings – as they did in 1876.
So we have a situation where under 45s are wasting £56.2bn in passive income for landlords in a single year. That’s income that could be invested into home and land ownership for citizens under a state issued plan. The huge private landlord robbery also leads to a high benefits bill. The British state pays 88% (or £26.8bn) of the housing budget on subsidising landlords with either legacy housing benefit or the housing element of universal credit.
The Labour government has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes during this parliament. But chancellor Rachel Reeves has also said that they aren’t going to spend any public money doing this.
So it remains to be seen how many will be affordable, social housing.
Another issue is worker shortages in the construction industry. For one, the Home Builders Federation (HBF) has said that the UK “does not have a sufficient talent pipeline” of builders to meet the goal.
Therefore, it is likely the problem of private landlords extorting their tenants is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Featured image via the Canary
