Home ownership falling in major English cities, says think tank

Major English cities - particularly Manchester - have seen the sharpest falls in home ownership since a peak in the early 2000s, analysis suggests.

The Resolution Foundation said homes were becoming increasingly unaffordable for struggling potential buyers.

The proportion of home owners dropped from 72% in April 2003 to 58% this year in Greater Manchester, it said.

West Yorkshire, the metropolitan area of the West Midlands and outer London have also recorded double-digit falls.

The Resolution Foundation used data from the Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The report follows recent data from the government's English Housing Survey showing the total number of buyers has fallen by a third in 10 years, and those who do buy their first home increasingly rely on the bank of mum and dad for help.

The Resolution Foundation's analysis of the LFS found that home ownership in England peaked in 2003 at 71% of the population and had now dropped to just under 64%.

 

The reduction in the proportion of people owning their own home was also recorded in other parts of the UK. The figures suggest home ownership:

• Fell from its 2006 peak in Northern Ireland of 73% to 63% now
• Dropped from 69% in Scotland at its 2004 peak to 63% now
• Decreased from 75% in Wales at its 2006 peak to 70% now

'Big problem'

The Resolution Foundation said its analysis showed that the struggle to own a home was no longer just a "London-centric issue".

"London has a well-known and fully blown housing crisis, but the struggle to buy a home is just as big a problem in cities across the North of England," said Stephen Clarke, the foundation's policy analyst.

"The chances of owning a home have fallen fastest in Greater Manchester over the last decade, though the Leeds and Sheffield city areas have also experienced sharp drops."

Renting v ownership

The think tank also confirmed that the fall in ownership corresponded with a rise in renting from private landlords.

The proportion of private tenants rose from 11% in 2003 to 19% last year, it said. In Greater Manchester, the move was more pronounced - rising from 6% to 20% over the same period.

While accepting that home ownership was rather a national obsession, it pointed out that those in the private rented sector spent more of their income on housing than their owners, and there was more insecurity in short-term tenancies.

"The shift to renting privately can reduce current living standards and future wealth, with implications for individuals and the state," Mr Clarke said.

"We cannot allow other cities to edge towards the kind of housing crisis that London has been saddled with."

In her first speech as Prime Minister, Theresa May referred to the "injustice" in the fact that "if you're young, you'll find it harder than ever before to own your own home".

Housing charity Shelter has regularly called for the government to do more to tackle what it calls a "drastic shortage of genuinely affordable homes".

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said more than 300,000 people had been helped into home ownership through government-backed schemes since 2010.

'More to do'

It also said that a 10-year decline in home ownership had stopped.

"However, we know there is more to do, which is why we have set out the most ambitious vision for housing in a generation, including delivering hundreds of thousands of homes exclusively for first-time buyers," he said.

The Local Government Association last week argued that councils should be given the opportunity to restore their "historic role" as house builders.