Keir Starmer chats with first time buyers at The Lilies, Bicton Heath Shrewsbury.
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00:00 Frustrating, long haul, like to get there but not quite there.
00:05 What's the thing that's holding you back? What's the thing you think, if I could get that out the way, I could get in there?
00:10 Is it the money, is it the start, the original bridging in?
00:13 The cost of housing around here, phenomenally high.
00:17 Lots of rents are increasing as well, unaffordable housing around here in this town.
00:23 Are you all renting?
00:25 I'm paying rent as I got evicted from my place so they could turn me into an Airbnb.
00:32 But the housing situation, the rental situation in Shrewsbury is so dire that I've been living with neighbours for five months.
00:39 You're probably all paying more than you would on a mortgage if you're honest.
00:43 So with my rent, it's literally gone up, I would say about 50% within the last year.
00:50 So it's gone from like 700 to 900 and I work full time, I work in the public sector.
00:56 So obviously saving on top of that, it's impossible.
01:01 So if you could get over the hurdle of actually being able to buy something, then it would settle down to less of it.
01:07 And obviously you'd get some of it back at the end of it.
01:09 Yeah, and something affordable for someone that works in the public sector and being able to save the deposit.
01:16 Yeah, you have a deposit.
01:18 I don't have a mortgage.
01:20 I'm currently working three jobs at the moment.
01:23 I'm working as a teacher and I've taken on lots of additional work to try and afford a house.
01:28 And it does feel for the first time like I'm doing my best, you know, professional person and I can't quite get there.
01:34 Just trying to break through, I think we're making house building a massive thing.
01:39 If we get over the line and win the election and all that, massive thing with 1.5 million houses being built.
01:46 But I think the biggest number of affordable homes in a generation.
01:51 So, you know, making sure this stuff that is good quality, that you can afford.
01:56 Now we've got to make, we've got to deal with planning, planning reform to deal with that.
02:00 We've got to, you know, fast track on brownfield sites so we can pull those through.
02:05 A lot more use of mares, getting things through very, very quickly to make sure that there's the stock of housing coming in.
02:14 But also help with the heritage.
02:16 I do wonder if those houses that you talk about, affordable, there's a million and a half of them that you want to build.
02:22 That's brilliant, great idea.
02:24 But I mean, going forward, those may not be affordable.
02:27 I don't know.
02:28 And I mean, you're talking about building them on brownfield sites and making them affordable.
02:31 I think, haven't the Tories said something about helping backing people with a 95, 9% mortgage?
02:38 Yeah, that sounds good too.
02:40 No, that sounds good.
02:41 It sounds good.
02:42 A lot of what they say sounds good.
02:43 The trouble is it doesn't translate into delivery.
02:45 Otherwise, you wouldn't be in the position you're in.
02:47 If you had much higher levels of affordable housing, that would be reflected here and some of you would already be buying.
02:53 But just, I mean, what they've done is they've taken down the targets so that in fact the number of houses building will go down, not up.
03:02 It's a problem for you.
03:04 Well, I think growing wealth inequality is a huge problem.
03:07 It's massive and the money's getting rinsed out of the UK, I think, corporations and away from you to do everything you want to do.
03:15 And I looked into the option of things like shared ownership.
03:17 There are so few and far between.
03:19 Would you do that if you had the chance?
03:21 Yeah, you'd all do that.
03:23 I work for the NHS and obviously we're in a cover for Seresbene and Telco.
03:31 So my wife works for the NHS.
03:33 This is a daily discussion.
03:35 There's a lot of work to do there as well.
03:37 Thinking about how much I give to the government and to the society, I think if I was to be evicted now for whatever reason, it's going to really impact on me working.
03:47 And it's going to also impact on the NHS because I may have to take time off work.
03:52 So I think we need to also look at NHS or public sector workers to be able to encourage them.
03:59 There is more incentive somewhere, aren't there?
04:01 There are some.
04:03 But you still need to get some.
04:05 The biggest problem we face, and it's the same in the rental sector, is supply.
04:08 And the government has taken away the targets, which means that demand is going up even more.
04:14 So if we don't fix the supply side, and that is affordable, social, as well as other houses being built, which we're determined to make part of it,
04:22 then we're never going to be out of this cycle because the demand is going to be so high that everyone's going to be chasing trying to get onto that ladder.
04:31 - Thank you, we've got to build.