The media and politicians focus on housebuilding as the panacea to all housing issues, whether its homelessness, high house prices or problems with renting. Yet many of the issues around housing are not strictly speaking housing issues at all.
We can identify the main ones as:
Changes in welfare payments
The ‘flexible’ labour market
General austerity
All of these have made it more difficult, especially for younger people, to afford to buy or to rent. Policy changes in these areas would have a significant impact on the ability of households to obtain suitable housing.
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