Ealing Housing Costs Raised in Parliament
Rupa Huq calls on government to 'commit to social rents' to help young people
Increasing housing costs in Ealing have been raised in Parliament with concerns that young people are feeling the housing ladder has been ' kicked away from them'.
The Ealing Central and Acton MP, Rupa Huq, said home ownership in the borough was 46% compared to 64% nationally and a first-time buyer expected to pay around £490,421, on an average salary of £27,000.
Mortgage lenders will lend at different rates with an income multiple of 4.5 the maximum at the moment. This would mean that a single person on £27,266 per annum could get a mortgage worth £122,697 - less than a quarter of what is needed to get a foot on the housing ladder in the borough of Ealing.
Dr Huq went onto to describe the cost of private rent in the borough as “punitive” and further cited the problem of retention in the teaching profession for schools across West London.
She said: ''I do a lot of school assemblies, and every school I go to says that it has recruitment problems because people cannot afford to stay in west London. The schools can get good trainee teachers in their 20s, but the minute those people want to put down roots, they are off to Milton Keynes, Slough or wherever the nearest affordable place is”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has recently announced, that 1,823 new affordable homes are to be built in Ealing - two thirds of which will be set aside for first time buyers with the remaining third set at social rent levels.
Dr Huq pushed the Government to “commit to social rents” in the same manner as the London Mayor as this could go some way to “counteracting the feeling of many young people that the housing ladder is being kicked away from them''
25th July 2017