Owning a home has become virtually impossible for many public
sector workers across Britain, according to research
published today (Sunday) by UNISON.
Getting a deposit together and obtaining a
mortgage are often insurmountable hurdles for those
living in the majority of local authority areas across
England, Scotland and Wales, according to the findings.
The UNISON report Priced Out highlights
how saving the money for a down payment on a
property would take decades – or more than a
century for public sector staff in some parts of London.
This is based on first-time buyers being able to
save £100 every month for a deposit*.
The research focused on the salaries for employees in five
jobs – an NHS cleaner, teaching assistant, librarian, nurse
and police community support officer (PCSO) **. It calculated
what multiple of their annual income they would need to
borrow for a mortgage once they had paid a deposit.
Across all nine English regions, Wales, and Scotland, it
would take a minimum of 14 years to save the required deposit
for a first-time buyer property, and considerably longer if
house prices continue to rise, says the report.
However, in London it would take between 132 years (in
Kensington and Chelsea) and 35 years (in Barking and
Dagenham) to find the money, and 32 years to save
the necessary deposit in the South East.
Priced Out shows that an NHS cleaner in London
earning £21,786 a year would need to borrow on average 16.5
times their salary to secure a mortgage for a first-time
buyer property.
A teaching assistant earning £19,446 a year in the South East
would need to apply to borrow more than 11 times
their annual wage, and in the East of England a PCSO on
£23,346 would need nearly 9 times their pay.
Given that the Bank of England’s maximum recommended
lending limit is 4.5 times a person’s
salary, Priced Out shows that a mortgage
is completely unattainable for an NHS cleaner or a teaching
assistant in every part of Britain.
For a PCSO, the North East is the only region where a
mortgage and owning their own home is a possibility. A
librarian or a nurse could only do this in the
North East or Scotland.
The report shows that the housing outlook is bleak, with
house prices predicted to grow faster than wages until at
least 2022.
Priced Out follows on from the UNISON
report Nothing Going on But the Rent, published
in June, which highlighted the high cost of renting for
public sector workers in England. The report found that
average rents were unaffordable in many regions, especially
for people working in lower paid jobs such as hospital
porters and teaching assistants.
Commenting on the Priced
Out report UNISON general secretary Dave
Prentis said: “Owning a home is now little more
than a pipe dream for most public sector workers.
“Deposits and mortgages are quite simply way out of reach,
while the spiralling cost of renting is eating up a growing
proportion of the take home pay of working people across
Britain. Wage rises haven’t kept pace with soaring house
prices and rents, and the situation looks set to worsen.
“The struggle for housing cuts across generations, jobs and
regions. Employees are being forced to work further away from
their jobs, and young people cannot afford to move out of the
family home.
“The government has had more wake-up calls over the growing
housing crisis than hot dinners. Decisive, creative and
responsible action is needed now.”
