When I was a student between in the middle of the last decade the Liberal Democrats were the party of choice. That was because under Charles Kennedy we were seen as a radical centre-left alternative to the Labour party that championed the causes of the young.
It’s unlikely that many would have guessed that only five years after I left university we would be two years into a coalition with Nick Clegg at the helm. However, it is precisely the move into Government with the Tories that has alienated so many of the people who once saw themselves as Lib Dems. Indeed, the Liberal Democrats in many places are now viewed as ‘just like the rest of them’ and the task now is to find a way to win back the minds of those whose imaginations were previously captured. So, the question is: “What do people in their 20s aspire to?”
The answer in many cases is a decent place to live. In the housing market people in their 20s (and a lot in their 30s) are all-too-often trapped in expensive, shared, rental accommodation, meaning they have little hope of putting money aside for the future. Schemes like Firstbuy and the various derivatives are all very well, but they are heavily reliant on brand new homes being built in the area in which people wish to purchase.
To really help young people escape the clutches of a competitive private rental market, the Liberal Democrats must push for such schemes to be extended to all homes, not just new ones. And the solution needs to be more flexible, without effectively trapping young people in new-build homes until they can muster the missing 20% before they are able to move house. Even better would be to invest more in shared ownership and provide full deposits for employed first-time buyers, possibly aimed at those with a parental guarantor. That equity would then remain in state ownership until bought out at a later date.
Greater regulation of the private sector rental market is also needed. I suggest a ‘landlord tax’, imposed on a sliding scale, depending on the number and/or value of properties owned, would be a fine way to levy charges on the wealthy. In addition, we need stringent rent controls to prevent the spiralling charges being imposed on the young by predatory landlords.
If we can show real achievements in this area then perhaps, come 2015, some of my peers will decide we aren’t so bad after all.
“Gary Shearer” is a pseudonym. The author has asked, for professional reasons, to publish this article under a pseudonym. Their identity has, however, been verified by the site’s editorial team.
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12 Comments
Bang on. I believe passionately that the Lib Dems are the party of our generation (I was at uni a few years earlier than you but still in the same group) – and one of the ways we can do this is by establishing either security in the rented sector or making it easier to buy houses.
In fact a policy working group specifically for this generation, who will take up the reins of the future of this party, would be very helpful…
Also same generation and while not convinced by some of your policy prescriptions (e.g. funded deposits would create a moral hazard issue and could actually end up artificially sustaining the housing sector, and linking it to parental guarantors would be great for middle class people whose parents have big houses, but not so much for others) I couldn’t agree more with the overall sentiment.
Privately rented housing seems to be the perpetual elephant in the room in housing policy discussions – it’s all about first time buyers (I actually hate that phrase as it ignores the people that aren’t even close to being able to buy!), little old ladies in massive houses, and social housing – despite being an ever-increasing portion of the housing mix. We need to lead on this – one way to help might be a mansion tax-esque proposal that included your entire property wealth rather than each individual house (i.e. if you have six houses in London which you let out, you would pay in the same way as someone with one big house). This would avoid the need for a separate ‘landlord tax’ – desirable as it’s worth bearing in mind that not all landlords own multiple properties – some are people who bought in one area, then moved for work, and now rent out the place they own while renting another place to live in. I also agree that it’s key to generational inequality.
On the wider point, I also agree with Louise that tying our work in different areas together into a generational narrative would be a good way to package the policies we already have to appeal to people in their 20s and 30s, the age groups in which we’re traditionally strongest. I actually always saw our tuition fees policy as a generational issue rather than an access issue, housing is another, and pensions is a big one – people my age are just starting to realise that the demise of final salary schemes means that apart from those lucky enough to be in the public sector, we could all be in big trouble come retirement, not to mention having to watch our parents retire at 60 while we have to go on to 67, 70, or beyond. And on top of that, pensioner benefits like winter fuel allowance are being protected even for those who don’t need them, while benefits more likely to benefit young or middle aged people are cut.
Obviously work in this area would have to be carefully put together to avoid frightening older people and turning an ‘intergenerational justice’ narrative into an ‘intergenerational conflict’ narrative, but I think having worked on the triple lock we have a solid record on helping older people that we could point to while saying it was time to shift our focus to the younger generation.
Like Laura I disagree with policy ideas (rent controls?!). LDs were party of my generation due to Iraq and civil liberties, not for merely being ‘left of Labour’ – issues that all felt equal on rather than issues directed primarily at an age group. Our problem remains the lack of a natural liberal voting base, and solution should be to be a consistently liberal party with a liberal message to sell, rather than try and target a specific age group at the risk of losing them in coalition.
Yes to Laura.
Adam (26)
Nick Clegg isn’t at the helm of the coalition – thats why you’re in such a mess
We have got to grasp the problems caused by the private rented housing. We need both a return of rent controls and security of tenure (the two have to go together). If there are other ways of taxing private landlords, fine.
In practice the private rented market consists of two kinds of housing – housing for ordinary people, often young people and people at the bottom of the market; and luxury housing. It might be useful to find a way of separating these, perhaps by some kind of planning designation, and applying the controls to the former, and pretty hefty taxation to the latter.
It is extraordinary that the proportion of houses that are owner-occupied is now falling (from a peak in the high sixties, I think, down towards the low sixties). Unless there are some radical new policies the trend will continue.
Tony Greaves
How will the Liberal Democrats once again become the party of your generation? Abandon the Right and dump Clegg and Alexander.
Thanks for your responses.
My aim was to start a debate, because it’s an issue that affects millions of people but gets little coverage. Those of us who are forced to move from one short-term rental home to another are clearly not seen as worthy of the attention of most politicians, even those in the Lib Dems (dare I say it). Yet when pressed on the topic I know politicians of all colours want to do something about our plight. We are clearly far from the most needy, but we work hard, aspire to more than a life of insecurity and deserve reform to a system that is stacked heavily against us. I don’t think I deserve to be given a house, but I think my girlfriend and I at least deserve a shot at home ownership before we hit our 40s. I worked out the other day that at our current rate of saving it would take the pair of us about five years to afford the deposit for the equivalent of a bedsit. In the meantime, we’re paying more than £600 per month for a far from adequate flat, albeit in a fairly leafy area.
With regard to the policy shortcomings, I have no real defence. There may very well be problems with rent controls and funded deposits (though rent controls seem perfectly acceptable to me), but I think a tax on those who own several properties must be something worth investigating. However, my overall point was that there must be more than one way to crack this problem. Somewhere, sometime, a policy genius will sit down in a room and come up with a solution. If that person is one of us then we could make some real headway with a group of people who are seriously hacked off about their situation.
I was at university when the tuition fees went up. What struck me was how so many highly educated people completely misunderstood how debt works. No, the Lib Dems aren’t the party of my generation: and thank goodness for that. I’d rather my generation be the generation of the Lib Dems than the other way around.
sensible policies on housing, but i’m afraid it won’t do
the Lib Dems have committed a historic betrayal of younger people – an exquisite betrayal – not just on tuition fees, but on cuts, on 50p & on marketisation of the NHS. Naturally, this poses problems
you could, however, redefine your party by breaking the Coalition (sure, if you didn’t do it on the NHS or this terrible budget, when will you?) But there is still time…
@ clempalme
Breaking the coalition wouldn’t result in you reds getting in, we’d just end up with a Tory majority.
@sip
We have Tory government now,I can’t see any where the LD’s have reigned them in,privatisation of the NHS and hammering and vilifying the poor to give tax cuts to the rich,the LD’s have got one helluva job to become the party of the younger generation or any generation for that matter,I think it will spend a long time in the wilderness until the memories of 2010-2015 are gone out of people’s minds,people will not forget the broken pledges and policies of the 2010 g/e,trust is going to be the biggest problem and wants that’s gone it’s hard to get back especially while the likes of clegg are still at the top of the party it won’t come back,your going to be starting down a long path and maybe come out of it as a single party or disappear altogether,for the sake of politics in this country we need a strong independent 3rd party so I hope it’s the former rather than the latter