00:00I'm Tom Simpson, Managing Director of Homes at Yorkshire Building Society, and today we're here to talk about the release
00:05of our new report, No Way Home, which we launched in Parliament last week.
00:08The report surveys 4,000 adults from right across the UK, and it identifies how the housing ladder isn't working
00:16for many people across the UK, and also puts forward some proposals to help fix that.
00:20What our research showed is that home ownership remains really important for people. Nine out of 10 people still believe
00:29it's something which is really important.
00:31However, what it shows is that over time, people's belief that they'll ever achieve it starts to fade.
00:37So nearly three quarters of people aged between 20 and 35 believe that they will own a home someday, whereas
00:46by the time you get to 45, that's fallen to almost a third.
00:50So people's belief fades over time. Some of the main barriers are lack of a deposit, affordability challenges, the cost
00:58of moving, the complicated and confusing nature of actually buying a house, and the lack of suitable homes for people.
01:06So it's something we really recognise. What we also see, though, is the benefit of getting advice, and that we
01:11do see there are options out there for people that they might not necessarily realise.
01:15Relative to income, house prices have increased significantly, so it's much harder to afford to buy a home than it
01:23used to be.
01:23It wasn't always the case. And actually, what that tells us is it is possible to have a system that
01:30does work.
01:31The housing ladder isn't working today, but it doesn't mean that that has to remain the case, particularly for the
01:36younger generation.
01:37You need the housing ladder to work right across the ladder.
01:39So, for example, people who are later on in life looking to downsize, if they can find a suitable place
01:46that they want to live and are able to do that, that frees up a home for someone taking a
01:50second step.
01:50And if they take a second step, that frees up a home for someone who's a first-time buyer.
01:54So the whole ladder needs to work. So what needs to change?
01:57Well, we want to see lenders able to be flexible where it's responsible, so regulation that encourages innovation.
02:03We want to see reform to stamp duty, which can be a barrier to people actually undertaking housing transactions.
02:12We want to see reform of the process of buying a home to make it simpler and easier.
02:17We also want to see supply of homes increased.
02:20And so that's rebuilding new homes, but also through reusing what's there, because there's actually three quarters of a million
02:27empty homes across the UK
02:29and many homes that could be repurposed from commercial property to try and address the gap.
02:34And finally, we'd also like to see a targeted replacement to help to buy, so an incentive, but one that's
02:39really focused on the right sort of affordable homes,
02:41so it doesn't just drive house prices up even more.
02:44It's easy to talk about this as an economic issue or an issue to do with regulation or politics, but
02:49at the end of the day,
02:50this is people's ability to have a nice family life, to be near support, to downsize when things change, to
02:57move for work.
02:58It's people's lives at the end of the day.
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