Generation Rent
Canbury Press (Verlag)
978-1-912454-26-6 (ISBN)
''The housing crisis is just getting started,' warns Timperley in this important book.' – MARTIN CHILTON, THE INDEPENDENT
'An essential read about a broken housing market.' – PETER APPS, INSIDE HOUSING
‘A lively account of arguably the country’s biggest social and economic problem.’ – MARTIN WOLF, FINANCIAL TIMES
For millions of Britons renting a home privately is the only option. By 2025, more people are expected to rent than own their own homes. Even members of Generation Rent with good jobs and skills have been priced out of the property market.
In this razor-sharp account of how a nation of homeowners gave way to a generation of insecure renters haemorrhaging cash, Chloe Timperley tackles the myths and mysteries belying so many attempts to ‘fix’ Britain’s broken housing market.
She reveals who’s being shafted, who’s cashing in — and the radical steps we must take to give everyone a good home, whether rented or owned.
A fast-paced jaunt around both buying and renting in Britain, Generation Rent is the essential guide to the UK's ruinously expensive property market.
Revealing how the UK came to have runaway house prices, Chloe Timperley dispels the notion held by some older people that the current generation of young people can't buy homes because they are feckless and squander their money on avocado toast.
First, she charts the rise and fall of council housing. From the early 20th Century onwards, high-quality public sector homes provided plentiful affordable homes that mixed social groups well. Then Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy sold off local authority housing and the number of council homes for rent crashed. Some council estates became known as 'sink estates', killing the municipal dream of post-war planners.
As a result, from the 1980s onwards, more renters in Britain have come to rely on the private rental sector. Backed by generous incentives from successive governments, renting has become a lucrative form of investment and credit has boomed. Buy to Let pensioners and private equity companies have moved into the market, buying up and renting out houses and flats. Most would-be first-time buyers have been outcompeted and priced out.
For those who can afford to buy, Generation Rent reveals that 'entering the kingdom of home ownership' may not be everything they expected, as a result of small properties and huge mortgages. In this concise book, Chloe Timperley tackles the surprising truth about housebuilding, including land agents, housebuilders' profits, and the leasehold trap.
She delves deeply into the world of private rented accommodation. Like Tenants by Vicky Spratt, Generation Rent charts the real problems faced by ordinary tenants, from extortionate rents for fleapits to no-fault evictions. We hear from tenants on the end of harassment from landlords and landladies and who struggle to afford booming rents.
And we get to know those who are about to lose their home through eviction and the causes and extent of homelessness.
But we also hear about housing from the other side - from the small investors who have retreated into renting property amid successive pension scandals. To research the book, the author goes undercover at a Buy to Let conference and landlord seminars.
Generation Rent is for anyone who wants to understand the reality of private renting and the practice and pitfalls of home buying. It's for anyone who wants to know why they can't afford to get on the 'housing ladder' and why rent eats up half their wages.
And it reveals a way out of the mess, rooted in the work of economist Henry George.
About the Author
Chloe Timperley lives in Sheffield. For Generation Rent, she interviewed MPs, economists and activists, went undercover at a property investment conference, joined a tenants’ union, and attended seminars on everything from ending homelessness to evicting tenants. Most importantly, she listened to the stories of hundreds of tenants.
Chloe Timperley lives in Sheffield. For Generation Rent, she interviewed MPs, economists and activists, went undercover at a property investment conference, joined a tenants’ union, and attended seminars on everything from ending homelessness to evicting tenants. Most importantly, she listened to the stories of hundreds of tenants.
PREFACE. Generation Rent is ultimately the story of how the UK turned its youth into an asset class. In the late 20th to early 21st centuries, housing went from basic good to financial asset. Our homes went from being a store of wealth for occupiers to a store of wealth for landlords and speculators
SECTION I. TRYING TO BUY A HOME
CAN’T BUY, WON’T BUY. Why Olivia and Izaak, an ordinary couple in their twenties with good jobs, cannot buy a home in the UK. Like their friends. At the peak of the homeownership dream, in 2007, 73 per cent of the population owned their own home. A decade later, in 2016, the figure was 63 per cent
‘REFUSING TO LEAVE HOME’. An older generation is blaming young people for still living with their parents, but the reality is that homes are too expensive to buy. Private renters are expected to outnumber people with a mortgage by 2025. Unfortunately, privately rented homes are often poor quality
A SHORT HISTORY OF BRITISH HOMES. Looking at land use and tenure in the UK the Norman Conquest to the late 1970s, focussing on the post-war ‘Golden Age’ when the UK government and local authorities embarked on widespread building programmes that created mostly high-quality council housing
SELLING OFF COUNCIL HOMES. When the post-war consensus crumbled, Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government launched the Right to Buy in 1981, giving council tenants the ability to buy their municipal home at a discount. It was wildly popular. But it led to less council housing and higher rents
BOOM! THE IMPACT OF CREDIT. Most people answer the question ‘Why is there a housing crisis?’ with one or both of these reasons: a) We aren’t building enough houses b) There too many people in the UK. But the real answer is a massive expansion of credit unleashed with financial liberalisation
SAY HELLO TO THE LANDLORD. Previously pushed out by rent controls and limited supply in the 20th Century until the 1970s, the number of landlords rose from the Thatcher era onwards. Buy-to-let mortgages increased the number of private investors buying homes, often pricing out first-time buyers
CAUGHT IN THE MORTGAGE TRAP. Affordability tests bar renters from getting a mortgage - even though they are paying more in rent than they would by buying a home. In 2018, the Santander bank found that renting a home anywhere in the UK was more expensive than owning one. London had the biggest gap.
SECTION II. HELP FOR BUYERS
THE BANK OF MUM AND DAD. increasingly and significantly for the country’s house prices, parents are handing over large lump sum gifts that can be put down as a deposit on a home that would be otherwise unaffordable. If BOMAD were a real bank it would be the 11th biggest in the UK
OFFICIAL HELP TO BUY. Assessing the Government help available for first-time buyers, including the Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee, the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme, the Help to Buy ISA, and the Lifetime ISA. Have these schemes worked by helping more young people buy a house?
SHARING A HOME. Shared ownership allows people to buy between 25 per cent and 75 per cent of a home and pay rent on the remaining share. Although a good idea, one scheme, HomeBuy Direct, does not always work. What happens when housing associations abuse their power?
MORTGAGED TENANTS. Most people who own homes in England and Wales are ‘freeholders,’ but some are 'leaseholders' - and they can be exploited with ruses such as the doubling ground rent scandal, a symptom of the growing financialisation of home-buyers and tenants
THE HOMEOWNERSHIP DREAM SOURS. For a time, owning a home was a great social leveller. Fast-forward to 2020, and that same ‘homeownership dream,’ even when fulfilled, no longer promises the same sort of freedom. Today’s first-time buyers are often mortgaged up to the eyeballs
SECTION III. HOW HOMES ARE BUILT
WHY CAN'T WE JUST BUILD MORE NEW HOMES? This is a common question but just freeing up land will not work. On average it takes 15 years from the granting of planning permission to the keys being handed to buyers. Properties are deliberately drip-fed onto the market to maintain high prices locally
SHIPPING CONTAINERS: CHEAPER HOMES. One entrepreneur in Sheffield, Jon Johnson, is trying to shake-up the market by creating affordable homes from shipping containers. They can make accommodation for the homeless, trendy offices, hipster cafés, and luxury custom-built homes. But will it work?
SELLING PLANNING PERMISSION. Looking at the controversial role of land agents and asking whether compulsory purchase orders would be the solution to the housing crisis, by speeding up the development process and forcing the mass building of new homes. Sets out the legal position governing the idea
LETTING THE LOCAL ECONOMY. Why does £800,000 buy a seven-bedroomed mansion in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, but only a tiny studio in London? Calculating how the value of homes is linked to the economic productivity of the local area, which influences rents more than property. It is rent for the area
SECTION IV. A NATION OF RENTERS
HELPING OUT THE LANDLORDS. Introduced by the 1988 Housing Act, Assured Tenancies more or less ended rent controls. Rents could be increased periodically, either by a valid rent review clause in the initial tenancy agreement or by issuing a notice under Section 13. Evictions were made easier
THE HOUSE OF LANDLORDS. Some 72 of the MPs who voted down a motion to ensure that tenants had the same right to good standard accommodation as dogs were themselves registered landlords. At the 2015 Conservative Party Conference, the ‘adult children stuck in the family home’ narrative was wheeled out
GET OUT OF MY HOUSE. By default, if you rent a residential property in England and Wales, then (as mentioned previously) you’re bound by the rules of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy, which can allow no-fault evictions after an initial minimum six-month period
REVENGE EVICTIONS. In 2015, Parliament passed the Deregulation Act, which was supposed to put rogue landlords out of business, but they are still in business. Revenge evictions can still take place providing landlords carry out basic steps – as shown by the experiences of Laura and her husband Mike
THE REALITY OF RENTING. Generation Rent, the charity organisation, invited people to share their renting horror stories on Twitter via the hashtag #ventyourrent. Black mould, broken windows, no hot water or heating, bullying landlords who say 'so what?' The landlord-tenant relationship can be feudal
REGULATING THE RENTAL MARKET. Dan Wilson Craw, head of campaign group Generation Rent, told me, there’s an argument for controlling rents now even if it isn’t a permanent fix. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has called for a London Living Rent. Could regulation of the private rental market work well?
WITH THE COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS. What is a tenants’ union? Spending time with ACORN renters’ union in Sheffield to find out more about their work and the response of tenants. ACORN – Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – was inspired by US ‘radical’ activist Saul Alinsky
COULD BUILD-TO-RENT HELP? A new business model in property development is promising to revolutionise the private rented sector: build-to-rent. Rather than selling off newly-built homes to investors, build-to-rent companies design high-quality apartment blocks aimed at catering to Generation Rent
SECTION V: SOCIAL HOUSING NOW
LIVING ON A COUNCIL ESTATE. Criminology Professor Stephen Farrall showed the ‘priority need’ system exacerbated the unusual social mix on council estates. Poverty, drug abuse, unemployment and crime have become concentrated disproportionately in them. Homeless people refuse to move to some estates
HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS UNDER PRESSURE. The 1985 and 1988 Housing Acts encouraged councils to ‘voluntarily’ transfer housing stock to housing associations – regulated at ‘arm’s length’ by a quango called the Housing Corporation. This paved the way for a more market-oriented social rented sector
'INTENTIONALLY HOMELESS'. One day Mia, an early years practitioner in England's Midlands, got home from work to find a ‘for sale’ board outside her house. She had lived in the house for six years but now was being booted out in a no-fault eviction. Mia spent four months in her sister’s place.
SOCIAL HOUSING: THE END GAME. Several council estates in London have been bulldozed and replaced with private housing by councils and developers working hand-in-hand to ‘improve’ inner-city areas. Gentrification is in the blog Regenerating Hackney’s Estates: Dirty Tricks of a Dirty Council
SECTION VI. WITH THE LANDLORDS.
'IS ANYBODY HERE A SOCIALIST?' At seminar at the National Landlord Investment Show, we hear from Tony Gimple, co-owner of the advisory firm Less Tax for Landlords. He asks: ‘Is anybody here a socialist?' No-one puts a hands up. ‘And is anybody here easily offended?’ Again, nothing.
AT THE LANDLORD ADVICE ROADSHOW. Entering the Residential Landlords Association’s ‘Landlord Advice Roadshow’ in Sheffield, posing as a property investor. Those attending probably represent more conscientious property owners. But not all of them.
NEST EGG: PROPERTY AS A PENSION. The ‘get-rich-quick’ accusations are only fair for a certain subsection of the landlord population. The fact is, a large proportion of people getting into small-time landlordism do it because they want to top up or create from scratch a healthy retirement income
INSIDE THE BUY-TO-LET INDUSTRY. Inside the National Landlord Investment Show at London's Olympia, which plays host to investment consultants, councillors, lawyers, estate agents and mortgage brokers, all giving their thoughts on the private rent sector. Landlords want hassle-free income: an annuity
NOW FOR THE 'CRACKDOWN'. Finding people from within the property world to speak to about the inner-workings of the buy-to-let industry proved surprisingly tricky. 'Eventually, I managed to get in contact with a marketing executive at a property investment company that builds urban apartment blocks.'
SECTION VIII: WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
SOME WAYS TO MAKE THE SYSTEM WORK. Isn’t it time we stop sacrificing the health, happiness and economic prospects of swathes of society on the altar of a failed ideology? Local authorities and housing associations could be part of the solution, alongside reinstating the rights of the commons
TIME FOR A LAND TAX. What is a land value tax. Explaining the economic ideas of American economist Henry George, while dealing with the 'Stern Cover-up' in UK politics. It's time to treat houses as homes. People should live normal lives rather than become financialised: ‘We are Not Your Assets’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Thanks to the Generation Rent Campaign Organisation, ACORN’s Sheffield branch, Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, Labour MP Dan Jarvis, Conservative MP Bob Blackman, Labour MP John Healey, Graham Hodges, Positive Money, Phil Anderson, Laurie Macfarlane, Akhil Patel, Anna Minton
NOTES. Full list of sources and references for this personal and authoritative guide to UK housing, house prices and rents
INDEX. Full page listing for Generation Rent. Such as the As: Abbeydale, ACORN, affordability of housing, Aldi, Alex, Alinksy Saul, Amazon Prime, Ambrosia Land University, American investment management company, Amsterdam, Architects for Social Housing, Architect’s Journal, Assured Shorthold Tenancy
| Erscheinungsdatum | 17.05.2019 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 1 Index |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 129 x 198 mm |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Immobilien / Grunderwerb |
| Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht | |
| Recht / Steuern ► Privatrecht / Bürgerliches Recht ► Baurecht (privat) | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-912454-26-2 / 1912454262 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-912454-26-6 / 9781912454266 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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