Brent's Depressing Housing Market

Wednesday's Scrutiny Committee has a housing report confirming that Brent is subject to similar trends as the rest of London.  These are:

• Population is going up.
• The proportion of the population living in private rented accommodation is going up markedly (from 17% in 2001 to 28.8% in 2011)
• Social housing is static as house building does not compensate for losses from the Right to Buy, which the Tory/Lib Dem government has now expanded. 
• Brent has more households in temporary accommodation than any other authority(3,400); the majority have been there since before November 2012.

Altogether, very little is being accomplished to turn around the dire housing situation we have at the moment.  Even the election of a Labour Government will take years to make an impact.

Perhaps, one of the most devastating comments regards affordability.  According to the report:

"Gross annual earnings in Brent are £28,111 (London £32800), giving an average price to income ratio of 14.7, while the London Housing Strategy states that eighty per cent of new market housing is affordable to only twenty per cent of working households. Median private sector rents are £1250 a month, just below the London average of £1300."