Autumn Statement 2015: No, Mr Osborne, this is not a crisis of home ownership, it’s a housing crisis – where was the pledge to fix the rental market?
The chancellor thinks we’re in the middle of a home ownership crisis. We're not, we're in the middle of a housing crisis.
At least the Conservatives are consistent. Their one-track focus on home ownership and home ownership alone as the only solution for the UK’s housing crisis never wavers.
Despite that the Conservatives still had the lowest targets for new homes of any of the main parties in their election manifesto, so today’s announcement – pledging to double the housing budget – looks like an admission they’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Read more: Osborne's long-term plan isn’t credible
And they’re right to up their game. Housebuilding is crucial to fixing the housing crisis. But home ownership isn’t the only answer.
Policies need to focus on making homes of all types affordable so people can choose what best suits them and their needs. Helping a select few with high rents or house prices doesn't fix the wider affordability crisis.
Families with young children may want security of tenure but young professionals prefer the flexibility of renting and sharing. The one thing that unites renters, owners and sharers is the desire for their homes to be affordable.
Read more: Osborne's housing measures risk making the situation worse
Today’s promise of 200,000 new starter homes for first-time buyers under 40, with a 20 per cent discount, should set alarm bells ringing. Helping people pay huge sums of money for homes isn't the same as addressing affordability.
And where was the pledge to fix the rental market? What about making renting more affordable too, so tenants with aspirations of home ownership can save faster to get on the ladder and those who choose to rent can live more comfortably? We need to stop seeing renting as a failure and treat it as the positive choice it can be. That means making sure it is a positive choice.
What’s needed is a concrete set of policies to address affordability for everyone. Whether it’s using an escalating housing benefit bill to help tenants afford rents or selling homes at a discount to first time buyers, propping up high prices isn’t a sustainable option.
Ownership isn’t the be all and end all. More than half of renters SpareRoom surveyed told us they’d be happy to rent long term if there wasn’t such pressure to buy. It’s not renting people object to as much as the sense that by not owning they’re missing out on financial benefits further down the line.
The social and cultural mindset is changing, but politics, it seems, is lagging behind.