In 2013, 1,117,000 households had mortgage debts amounting to more than 4.5 times their disposable income. Flickr/Nico Hogg. Some rights reserved.
In a piece on September 25, nearly two weeks after Jeremy Corbyn’s ascent to the leadership of the Labour Party, Owen Jones argued: “Labour should say it loud: under the Tories, homeownership is becoming an impossible dream – and it is only Labour that can realise the hopes and aspirations of the majority.” During his (failed) leadership campaign, Andy Burnham also pledged to make Labour the “party of home ownership”, whilst Ed Miliband attempted to go head-to-head with the Conservatives on the housing question, castigating David Cameron for falling levels of ownership, and proposing that stamp duty be scrapped for first-time buyers on houses worth less than £300,000.
This emphasis on the “dream” of owning a home has also been taken up by Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Housing Minister, John Healey:
