Usual muddled thinking Government that'll stimulate demand, drive up house prices and disadvantage even more the poorest (non Tory voting) people in our society, cleverly spun to make a good sound bite and win a few middle class votes.

I agree with the point you made about not all young people wanting to leave the family home and live alone. I have two children in their 20s. One left and came back because she realises the benefits of living in a house where she has little responsibility for cleaning, cooking, etc. and enjoys having other people around. The other moved out reluctantly when he became a father and he and his partner would quite happily move back here if I had room to accommodate their family. Also, many of their friends still live with their parents through choice not necessity and others rent because they don't want to buy. Until covid 19 hit, they were enjoying spending their money on travel and didn't want to commit to living in one place too long due to moving around the country for different jobs. Home ownership isn't for everyone, especially when they are young.

Can see it now, Govt claiming a roaring success ( having ' spun ' the statistics to suit their story )

The private rented sector makes far more efficient use of the housing stock than owner occupied. You need a lot more owner occupier homes to house the same number of private renters.
When a private rented home is sold, it doesn't disappear, it just houses less people.
English housing survey;
Under-occupation was much more prevalent among owner occupiers than in the rented sectors. Over half (52%) of owner occupied households (7.8 million households) were under-occupied in 2018-19 compared with 14% of private rented (623,000)

Dr Beck has a good appreciation of the problem and the government does not, in fact everything the government does makes it worse for tenants AND worse for owners.

Reply to the comment left by Monty Bodkin at 03/11/2020 - 12:03Yes, Monty. We make far more efficient use of housing and huge amounts of income tax are paid by us because of how rental housing is taxed. Homes occupied by owner occupiers in contrast are, as you say, far less efficiently used and also provide no income tax - or CGT - for HMRC's coffers. And yet the latter arrangement is always lauded over the former.

I think you miss the point that allowing the younger generation to borrow double the amount they currently can i.e. 10% to 5% mortgage it's a way to keep property prices as high as possible.....this is beneficial to landlords as it keeps their asset prices high.......the morality and basic economic value of helping young people into huge amounts of dept is questionable.....but as landlord we should be thanking them.

Although it's the extra competition for potential rentals that probably irks you I'm guessing.

Reply to the comment left by TrevL at 03/11/2020 - 22:17
Sorry, I don't understand the comment.

Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 04/11/2020 - 01:33
Neither do I. As long as the house prices don't depreciate, there are benefits to all if prices don't spiral. The returns will be better with a stable market (unless you are in it purely for capital gain).

I wonder if the government have thought through the enormous expense of rehousing evicted tenants? The costs economically are horrendous and emotionally even worse. Creating mental health breakdowns that all have to be dealt with by the taxpayers.