Kezia Dugdale: House buying unrealistic for too many young people
Buying a house has become an unrealistic prospect for too many young people, according to Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale.
Buying a house has become an unrealistic prospect for too many young people, according to Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale.
Ms Dugdale will say the younger generation has been left behind by austerity'' in a speech to party activists in Edinburgh tomorrow.
She is expected to announce a new housing policy, the first election pledge from the party as campaigning for the Scottish Parliament election gets under way.
Ms Dugdale will highlight figures showing the number of people in Scotland aged 16-34 who bought their own home with a mortgage fell from 48% in 1999 to 28% in 2014, with a drop of 15% since the SNP came to power in 2007.
She is expected to say: A whole generation of Scots, thousands of people my age, have been left behind by austerity.
Young people are twice as likely to be unemployed.
Those lucky enough to find work have been more likely to find themselves in part time, low wage, insecure work than previous generations.
Young people have also found themselves saddled with increasing levels of student debt under an SNP government which promised to cancel debt but which has instead doubled it.
As their position in the economy has gone backwards they haven't progressed in life in the way previous generations have enjoyed.''
Ms Dugdale will say many young people under paid and overburdened with debt'' have been left unable to aspire to save or to own a car or home.
She will say: For too many young couples in Scotland today, buying a house isn't a realistic prospect. A lot of young people are stuck in a cycle from which there appears to be no escape.
They decide to rent a flat to save for a deposit to buy a house, but the rent is too high so they can't save much for that deposit, which means they continue to pay the high rent for years to come.
Lots of young people now live at home with their parents well into their thirties as it's the only realistic prospect of ever being able to save for a house.
The price of austerity has been that aspiration has stalled for a whole generation.''