Under-35 UK home owners down 20% since 2010

Analysis commissioned by the Labour Party shows that the number of working-class home owners has fallen by 20% since Prime Minister David Cameron came to power in 2010. This figure suggests that the number of people under the age of 35 that own a home has fallen by 280,000 households since 2010. However, alternatively the data shows that the number of people over the age of 35 that own their own property has risen by 39,000.  

The number of young working-class households who own their own homes has declined by 20% since David Cameron came to power, analysis commissioned by Labour has found.

The figures suggest the overall number of under-35s who own their homes has fallen by 280,000 households since 2010, with the drop more marked among those who do routine or manual work, or are unemployed.

John Healey, Labour’s shadow housing minister, reported the data before the launch of the party’s housing review by Peter Redfern, the chief executive of Taylor Wimpey, the housebuilding company.

He said it was clear that homeownership among the young is falling despite the government’s initiatives claiming to be making housing more affordable for first-time buyers – such as starter homes and help-to-buy.

Healey said homeownership is now in “freefall” because of the housing crisis, with young people aspiring to own a home the hardest hit. “What used to be a natural part of growing up is becoming a luxury for those on the highest salaries, or whose parents have the deepest pockets,” he said. “It would be Labour’s first priority in government to change that.

“The Redfern review will take a hard look at the causes of the recent decline in homeownership, to help bring fresh ideas to the wider public debate on how Britain can get to grips with this problem.”

The data shows that while the number of under-35s who are head of homes they own has dropped by 280,000 over five years, the number of those over 35 has risen by 39,000.

The biggest numerical drop is among young people in professional jobs, down 150,000, which is 16% lower than five years ago.

However, there has been a steeper drop in working-class households headed by under-35s with 68,000, or 20% fewer, than in 2010.

In response to the new figures, the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “We want to ensure that anyone who works hard and aspires to own their own home has the opportunity to do so and in the last year alone we have already seen a 25% increase in the number of new homes built.”

Last year, data from the Office for National Statistics demonstrated that homeownership among the young had collapsed since 1991, when a third of Britons aged 16-24 who were household heads owned their own home. By 2011 that number had fallen to just one in ten.

Among those advising Labour on the Redfern review are Kate Barker, a former member of the Bank of England monetary policy committee, Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, Ian Mulheirn, director of consulting at Oxford Economics, Andy Gray, a former managing director of mortgages at Barclays and ex-deputy chair of the Council of Mortgage Lenders.