Shropshire MPs' column - the latest from the county's representatives in Westminster
Read the latest column from the MP for The Wrekin, Mark Pritchard.
Twenty years ago, 13 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds still lived with their parents.
Today, that figure is almost 20 per cent, which equates to 450,000 more young adults living in the family home.
High rents and rising house prices remain the biggest obstacles to moving out.
In England, a person on an average income will typically need to spend more than 36 per cent of those earnings on rent.
On May 1, the Government’s Renters Rights Act will come into force.
With its promise to end ‘no fault’ evictions, ban bidding wars on rent payments for advertised properties, and make it easier for tenants to keep pets, the Government believes the Act will “transform the experience of private renting”.
The Government might be proved right in that prediction, but not exactly in the way it hopes.
Labour, as usual, has forgotten that being a landlord is not compulsory.
By giving landlords less control over their own properties, the Act makes it less attractive to rent them out.
The Chancellor’s recent decision to make landlords pay even more tax on rental income means there is now less financial incentive to stay in business.
With most private landlords already making less than £10,000 per year in profit, many will increase rents by larger amounts.
Others will stop renting out their property, reducing choice for potential tenants and driving rents up.
In Scotland, similar reforms produced exactly that outcome: fewer landlords, fewer rental properties, and rents which rose faster than anywhere else in the country.
Ministers should beware the law of unintended consequences.
Higher rents also make it harder to save money for a deposit on a house.
Research by Barclays in July last year found only 17 per cent of renters were saving for a deposit, and just 16 per cent believed they could buy a home within five years.
As well as putting down the deposit, buyers must pay stamp duty – a terrible tax which stops people moving house and clogs up the housing market for everyone.
Why on earth should someone pay thousands of pounds to the Government just because they move house?
While first-time buyers don’t pay stamp duty on properties under £300,000, they still struggle to get on the housing ladder if owners of typical starter homes cannot afford to move on to a larger property.
That is why I was delighted when Kemi Badenoch confirmed the Conservatives would end stamp duty altogether on primary residences.
In Shropshire, the average house price is £290,000.
Scrapping stamp duty would save the typical buyer £4,500 in tax – money which could be spent in local shops, on a family holiday, or on home improvements - and help get more people get the homes they need and want.
For those looking to rent or buy, the housing market isn’t working.
As a first step to fixing it, scrapping stamp duty would be a game-changing tax reform. Kemi Badenoch is to be praised for her boldness in proposing its end.
