About 630,000 UK citizens who are part of the so-called generation rent may face the prospect of homelessness when they retire if rent costs in the United Kingdom continue to rise and the government fails to provide affordable housing, a report compiled and released by the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Ageing and Older People said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th July, 2019) About 630,000 UK citizens who are part of the so-called generation rent may face the prospect of homelessness when they retire if rent costs in the United Kingdom continue to rise and the government fails to provide affordable housing, a report compiled and released by the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Ageing and Older People said."As income declines substantially in retirement, we are expecting the greatest need - around 630,000 units over 30 years (excluding those covered under the first stream) - to come from those facing unaffordable rents in the private sector," the report titled "Rental Housing for an Ageing Population" said.
The report concluded that, faced with this prospect, millennials would have to rely on the state for support and move into subsidized housing, which would, in turn, put a strain on the government's budget.
"The consequence of there being nowhere affordable for these households to go is bound to be homelessness for some and a move into temporary accommodation, at the state's expense, for others," the report said.
The report called for a national strategy to confront the possible "crisis of pensioner homelessness" and to build at least 1.1 million new rental homes specifically for older people by the late 2040s.
"Our Inquiry has concluded that there will be very significant demand for affordable rented homes for older people over the next 30 years: we estimate a need of an average of 38,000 homes a year for rent, of which at least 12,000 should be Extra Care or sheltered. This totals over 1.1 million homes by the late 2040s," the report said.
The United Kingdom is in the midst of a housing crisis. While the availability of affordable social housing in the country has steadily decreased in the last decade, there has been a 165 percent increase in homelessness since 2010, according to official numbers released by UK national charity Crisis for homeless people.
A November report published by UK housing charity Shelter called on the government to invest 214 billion Pounds ($265.5 billion) into a 20-year house-building program that would reverse the housing crisis.
