Author Archives: Joshan Parmar and Emma Munda

Ambition for Cambridge

By Joshan Parmar and Emma Munda | Tue 1st August 2023 - 10:25 am

Embed from Getty Images

For most young people, the prospect of ever owning a home seems perpetually out of reach. With the average house costing over 75% more (in real terms) than 10 years ago, is it any surprise that young people are not optimistic about their chance to own a home?

Ultimately, this leaves young people stuck in exploitative rent contracts , being charged ever-increasing rent and holding back Britain. And this is getting worse. Conservative, Labour and Coalition governments failed to build enough homes for decades, and we live with the consequences. Skyrocketing rents, ever more unaffordable house prices, and an unprecedented cost of living crisis have left millions, especially young people, feeling completely helpless. The medicine here is simple: we must build more homes.

On Monday, Michael Gove gave a speech in London on just this topic. Amongst several prescriptions, of varying practicality, to boost the UK’s housing supply, one truly radical vision stuck out.

Gove wants to see hundreds of thousands of homes built in Cambridge, more than doubling the city’s size. This ambition is laudable, but we have little faith in Gove, or the Government, to deliver it.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 15 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • David Allen
    Peter Martin, I agree that the lack of a real financial incentive for many people to take up low-paid jobs rather than living on benefits is a problem. But ...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    David, no apology needed, and less disagreement than you might think. I did not come to this party through its history, I came through its principles and a shop...
  • Jana
    @David Raw “…your message would have more impact if you actually produced some verified empirical evidence..” Perhaps this BBC news item from 15 years a...
  • Peter Davies
    "Labour and nature are the source of all value". The problem is that in the UK, much of that labour was by people long since dead. Unskilled labour these days i...
  • David Raw
    @ Jana "I do not blame people on benefits seeking to maximise their income by claiming PIP, particularly by getting their children diagnosed with ADHD and th...