Cathy Come Home's lesson will soon be learned again

[CHIMO]

Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home at the British Film Institute last week brought tears to many eyes, including my own. The story of a young couple descending with their babies into increasingly squalid homes and hostels until losing their children to care shocked a generation 45 years ago. It so shook the conscience of the time that punitive hostels were shut and councils obliged to house families and anyone vulnerable. New campaign groups Shelter and Crisis kept housing near the top of the political agenda, demanding decent homes. But this government is in the process of demolishing most of the protections brought in then.

This is an odd time to undermine housing security, weaken council tenancies and cut housing benefit, while raising social rents. For the first time in decades, housing is soaring up the political agenda as lack of anywhere affordable to live reaches a crisis point for children of the middle classes, for graduates, for people in their 30s. The average age for a first-time buyer is now 37, for anyone without parental help for a deposit. Fewer home-owning parents can help children now deposits are so high. Home ownership has fallen over the last eight years, projected to be just 61% in 10 years. Why else would David Cameron feel obliged to proclaim "a new Tory housing revolution"? He compares himself to Harold Macmillan, yet his plans at best are projected to produce 170,000 affordable homes over five years: he's no Macmillan. The backlog of demand will grow.

This week's Shelter report found average private rents were now beyond the reach of ordinary working families in 55% of English authorities, costing well over a third of their income, while energy prices rocket too. With mortgages unavailable and deposits too high, there are one million more private tenants than five years ago. (Jon Snow found some renting half-sheds for £40 a week). Households renting privately are overtaking the number of social tenants. Private tenants live an insecure life, where after an initial lease of six months, anyone can be evicted at two months' notice and rents can rise by any amount. This is no life for families, at constant risk of removal from schools and jobs. Shelter, Crisis and Labour's shadow housing minister, Jack Dromey, are calling for secure tenancies of three to five years, as in most of Europe, so that rents rise by no more than inflation during that lease.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/14/cathy-come-home-lesson-rents-mortgages