Renting ‘no bad thing’ says home-owning housing minister

The era in which all Britons aspire to own their own home may be coming to an end according to the housing minister, John Healey. He has suggested the UK may be moving towards a European model with renting on a roughly equal footing (whatever that means) with buying. Home ownership has fallen from 71 per cent of households in 2003 to 68 per cent today, and this trend began in 2005–well before the recession. “I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing,” he said.

It is right to be suspicious of someone who undoubtedly owns his own home—perhaps more than one—telling the nation that renting isn’t a bad thing. What does he know?

Renting wouldn’t be a bad thing if the UK had laws that put tenant rights first. Instead we have countless unsafe properties and dodgy landlords, and those houses and flats that aren’t unsafe or controlled by the unscrupulous have a great many rules attached to them. You can’t keep pets… No, you can’t redecorate, the hideous Laura Ashley wallpaper stays… No way can you get a new washing machine, the old one’s fine, the sparks coming out the back are no problem…

Of course some choose to rent rather than own, and there are some great rental properties out there. Most who rent can’t afford to buy. Couldn’t we make renting a nicer and safer experience for everyone, especially as this would still allow landlords to turn a good profit from their property portfolios? As things stand, many rental properties are much more expensive than it would cost to buy the same, were it not for the nightmare of 25%-50% deposits being required, and that’s if you’re able to get a mortgage these days.

John Healey is sidestepping almost every issue—including the fact that there aren’t enough homes for people, to rent or buy. Time to give up the dream? That’s always going to be a difficult message to convey after three decades of successive governments telling us everyone should aspire to home ownership, encouraging a kind of snobbery, while at the same time doing nothing to address the disparity between renting and owning in terms of personal freedoms to tailor your home to your liking, as you see fit.