We’re letting down young families with existing housing policies - Andy Brown

For many it has become an impossible dream. Something that is only affordable for those who have a lot of support from parents or have inherited wealth. We were meant to be living in a home owner democracy not to go back to the days of Jane Austin when what mattered most was your connections and not your own efforts.

Those who can afford to buy are being hit by intimidating increases to their mortgage costs that amount to hundreds of pounds a month. Largely because the last variant of this government gambled recklessly with the economy and failed.

For some the solution to this problem is to build a lot more houses. Unfortunately it is not that simple. Appropriate sites are hard to come by and when they are, much of what gets built is way beyond the price range of a first time buyer.

We are in danger of swamping rural communities, small villages and attractive suburbs with new executive homes that get snapped up by purchasers who want to rent them out as holiday homes or by people retiring from the South East with sufficient equity to outbid anyone relying on a local income. For those who can’t realistically afford to buy at this stage in their lives there is a desperate shortage of decent homes available to rent at affordable prices.

There are some excellent private landlords out there who offer pleasant warm homes and who are happy to leave reliable tenants feeling secure in their home. There are others who demand large deposits and turf out residents after six months if they smell an opportunity to get someone new in who will pay a little more.

Good quality privately rented housing is expensive and some of the stock of social housing has suffered so badly from decades of underinvestment that it is riddled with damp and mould.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s governments used to boast of how many council houses they could build. Then came the era of selling off public assets on the cheap.

There are a lot of genuine benefits to be had from enabling people who rent a council house to be allowed to buy it and own their own home. Provided that home is sold at a realistic price and the money is used to build new homes for those in need.

What happened instead was that council homes were sold off on the cheap and the money was frittered away. That has proved to be a slow burn policy disaster of massive proportions. It has left the young generation without opportunities that older generations took for granted.

It is neither quick nor easy to fix a problem of housing supply that is the product of decades of misjudged policy. But a start needs to be made on a serious programme of providing quality homes that are available for rental from either a housing association or the local council.

The challenge of finding the right sites to build on won’t be easy. The challenge of finding the money ought to be significantly less difficult. Houses are assets. It is entirely possible for a local council to borrow against that asset and use the rent to cover the cost of that borrowing.

Or it would be if it wasn’t for ideology. Most Conservatives are extremely reluctant to free up opportunities to do this because it means questioning the judgement of one of their great heroes, Margaret Thatcher, and changing one of her most popular policies.

At present a home that a local council builds can still be bought by the occupier at a hefty discount. That makes it virtually impossible for a council to borrow and build responsibly. If the home is bought by the occupier the public is left with a chunk of the debt but none of the asset. That has to change.

Along with this blind spot in policy there is one other that is even more damaging. Providing good quality housing is not all about new builds. The quickest solution to the housing crisis is to repurpose existing stock and bring it up to standard.

Across many parts of Yorkshire there are areas of inner city housing which are not fit for purpose and which young families would prefer to avoid living in. Especially if the local schools have a poor reputation.

That needs addressing. No government can transform the situation of an entire inner city overnight. Yet governments could get serious about identifying areas where a programme of investment in existing housing and schools would make a massive difference.

Andy Brown is the North Yorkshire County Councillor for Aire Valley and is a member of the Green Party.