Young Britons Barred From Better Jobs by High Housing Costs
Young Britons Barred From Better Jobs by High Housing Costs
(Bloomberg) -- High housing rents are stunting career prospects and damaging productivity by making it hard for young Britons to move to better-paying parts of the country, according to the Resolution Foundation.
The number of 25-34-year-olds moving home to start a new job has fallen from 30,000 in 1997 to just 18,000 last year, the think tank said in a report published Thursday.
Sharp increases in rental prices in cities such as London and Bristol mean that people moving from low-paying areas are seeing no financial gain, whereas two decades ago they would have been as much as 25% better off.
“Young people today are often stereotyped as being footloose when it comes to work, but in fact they are moving around for new job opportunities far less frequently than they used to,” said Lindsay Judge, senior policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation. “There are real advantages to moving when it comes to trying new roles and developing skills -– and housing should not be a barrier that prevents them doing this.”
The loss of labor mobility is also bad news for companies, which are finding it hard to fill skills gaps, the report warned.
In a separate analysis Thursday, the Affordable Housing Commission, set up by the left-wing Smith Institute think tank, warned that one in five households in England now faces “grave” housing affordability problems, with the squeeze most acute in the private rented sector.
“The term ‘affordable’ has become a much-abused word in housing circles,” said AHC Chairman Richard Best, a member of the House of Lords. “Successive governments have taken it to mean rents or purchase costs which are lower than in the open market. But paying rents of, say, 80% of the market level is still far beyond the means of many who need a home.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss, Andrew Atkinson
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.