A recent report from Shelter revealed a swathe of strapped families facing years of private renting, or having to remain on the first step of the property ladder.
Approximately 1.8m family’s fall into this group, yet the study shows that almost three-quarters of these families are priced out of the traditional housing market.
Even with the coming Help to Buy mortgage guarantees, 78% of these families will still be unable to afford the repayments on a family-sized home.
This means that the only option for many will be years in the insecure private rented sector, paying out dead money in rent.
In contrast, the report finds that mortgage repayments on a shared ownership home would be affordable for 95% of families on low or middle incomes.
Shelter is now calling for a major new housebuilding programme of shared ownership homes to revolutionise ownership for ‘forgotten families’.