Housing publication reveals bleak future for youth of 2020

Housing options for young people will remain highly uncertain, a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has announced.

The ‘Housing Options and Solutions for Young People in 2020’ study has declared that fundamental alterations will have to be made to the UK housing system if young people are to avoid further marginalisation.

According to the foundation, by 2020 around 1.5m more people aged 18-30 will be forced into living in the private rented sector while 0.3m will still be living with parents until their late 20s.

The report recommended that if stability was to be achieved in private rented tenancies, landlords should provide smarter incentives through tax breaks in return for longer term occupancies for vulnerable tenants.

Social landlords could also help young people by supporting access to private rented tenancies, offering greater shared occupancy optionsat local housing allowance rent levels, the report found.

Speaking at the CIH 2012 Housing conference, Julia Unwin, Chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said that fundamental changes would be needed if the country was to cope with developing housing demands in eight years’ time.

‘If we have the private rented sector of today in 2020, it will be overburdened and fall over. The 400,000 young people earning less than £13,000 each year will really struggle.’