Is the housing market boom hiding a crisis?

Is the housing market boom hiding a crisis?

By Sky News

With the housing market booming, how is there a housing crisis at the bottom end of the property ladder?

COVID-19 has had a dramatic effect on the housing market, despite there being a recession, house prices have been going up and more properties have been changing hands than anyone could ever have imagined.

But for people looking to get their first home, things have been harder than ever.

To explain why housing market analyst, Neal Hudson, talks through the change in behaviour; Anya Martin, head of policy at PricedOut, and social mobility commissioner Saeed Archer show the effects that this will have on society. Jake from Southampton also tells his story about living in the midst of the cladding crisis.

In response to the podcast, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said:

"Our priority is to make more homes safer, faster - and that's why we're providing £1.6 billion to speed up the removal of unsafe cladding, targeted where it is needed most. We're already seeing progress - almost 80% of buildings with unsafe ACM cladding have completed or are in the process of remediation, rising to 97% in the social housing sector.

We're developing a longer-term financial solution to help protect leaseholders from unaffordable remediation costs. Building owners should meet remediation costs without passing them on to leaseholders wherever possible.

The Government is helping a new generation to take their first step on the housing ladder with schemes including Help to Buy and Right to Buy helping almost 649,000 people to purchase a home since 2010.

We're investing £11.5 billion in our new Affordable Homes Programme - the biggest investment in a decade - to deliver up to 180,000 new affordable homes across the country.

Our new Shared Ownership scheme is also making it easier to buy a home, while our First Homes scheme will offer a 30% discount on the price of a new home with councils able to prioritise these homes for key workers including nurses and teachers."





Credits:

Daily podcast team:

Podcast producer - Annie Joyce

Podcast producer - Nicola Eyers

Podcast producer - Emma Woodhouse

Interviews producers - Oli Foster

Archive - Simon Windsor

Archive - Rob Fellowes

Music - Steven Wheeler
-
-
Heart UK
Mute/Un-mute