Housing crisis

Recent Office for National Statistics data show that house prices are increasing annually by 9.6% compared to just 2.2% for wages.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “House prices are going up four times faster than people’s wages. No wonder mortgage approvals are falling and first-time buyers are struggling to save a large enough deposit. And we all know that housing bubbles burst and cause economic chaos.”

O’Grady said that there is no sign the government “yet understands the challenge of ending the housing crisis”.

She said that their headline policy, “an incredibly unpopular plan to sell off social housing to the private market”, would reduce the supply of affordable homes “when we should be adding to them as quickly as possible”.

www.ier.org.uk/news/housing-costs-are-increasing-four-times-faster-wages