Author Archives: Joshan Parmar and Emma Munda

Ambition for Cambridge

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

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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.