UK Budget

[Colwyn]

We were brought up in a hole in the road

The Chancellor has today announced new funding to fill in holes in the road.

[kevin3]

But surely that will create a hole new generation of homeless folk.

[usedbustickets]

Oh what a mean spirited set of posts about how hard it was for you and the kids today have it easy and don't know they are born. It is always tough starting off in the world and getting on the housing ladder... the difference is that today it is much harder.

Remember you were part of the generation that by large enjoyed full employment, with plenty of 'good jobs' amongst that full employment where most enjoyed sick pay, pensions, regular hours of work, where the wage rates were increasing in both real and inflationary terms not as today where real wage rates have fallen, you also enjoyed tax relief on your mortgages, indeed you enjoyed greater mortgage choice/options, people entered the property owning  via a hugely discounted council house sale, there was also more house building going on so at least supply was keeping up with demand, there was not the golden generation of people (like you) who have benefited from housing equity to be able to buy up properties for buy to rent market driving up house prices even more and adding to the low level of supply problems.

Come on take the rose tinted specs off about how tough it was for us and how undeserving the young are today.  How would you get on in say London or South East (or indeed any other housing hot-spot in the country) on average national wage £26,000 (and there are many on much less than this), get together enough to make a deposit (whislt you are trying to exist not live as many do today) and a obtain a large enough mortgage to buy a property where the average starter home price (flat or if very lucky a small house) is in the £200,000+ mark.  I know I couldn't do it today, particularly if I was employed in one of the causualised jobs that are only available today.

Shame on you for not seeing how hard it is for the young today, and shame on Osborne for doing little or nothing about it either!!

[strange]

Absolutely spot on UBT. My kids are all in their 20s, and work, but how they will get on the housing ladder I don't know. Additionally rents are now more monthly than what a mortgage costs monthly, but they can't get a mortgage because they don't have a ridiculous amount saved away as a deposit (something they'll never be able to do while paying private rent rates).

[Colwyn]

I've got to agree with UBT as well. Hilary and I joked that we would be the first generation in living history to die earlier than our parents having looked after both our mothers through their encounters with Alseimer's (in their 80s) as that had taken so much out of us whereas their own parents had died in their 60s or before. But in truth I think UBT is right to label 'us' (UBT is much younger than I am) the "golden generation" for all the reasons he states. Of course not all of my age cohort worked hard, saved money, looked after their future, never spent what they didn't have (except buying a house), and now face a rather bleaker future than I do. But I fully recognize that this was as much to do with luck of being born when I was as it was to my own sterling qualities. For example, not only was I able to access to free undergraduate education, I was also paid a grant to cover my living expenses (which it did for term time). Advantages also enjoyed by the majority of politicians who voted to take these away from today's youth - "Haul up the ladder, I'm all right Jack". These young people also face the prospect of zero hour contracts, non-unionized workplaces, rampant employer power, the constant threat of unemployment and generally growing to adulthood in a far, far more unequal country than I did where most of them are at the bottom.


I am rather proud of the way my two daughters have dealt with all this which is far more challenging than the world I faced. I might even tell them so one day.

[kayakebab]

My daughter has a really good job in London but pays £650 a month rent, sharing with 3 others all paying the same, above a kebab shop in Clapham. Shes 26 now and cant see any way she'll ever be able to afford to buy anywhere.

She takes the attitude that she might as well travel as much as poss and enjoys the London lifestyle and saves nothing.

I always knew I wanted to be a homeowner and saved like crazy and bought my own flat at 21, and am now doing the travelling thing later in life.

I guess its about choices at the end of the day and attitudes to whats important in life has certainly changed. My daughter probably spends the equivalent of what I used to spend on food each month on alcohol.
I was more homely and didnt mind having a tight budget and hardly ever going out, and reaped the rewards of equity from property and retired early to the sunshine.

My son is more like me and is squirrelling money away, but prices seem to go up faster than he can save and of course currently no interest on savings.

No regrets from me, but I do worry and cant see either of my children ever owning anywhere unless they inherit or marry someone wealthy!

[c1]

I liked the pension changes.