Cuddly phrases disguise the reality: those with property pass unearned wealth on to their children, entrenching unfairness. It’s capitalism at its most brutal
A report from Legal & General and economics consultancy Cebr has found that Britain’s parents have just entered the top 10 UK mortgage lenders. Collectively, they will lend their children £6.5bn this year to buy homes; an amount similar to that lent by the UK’s ninth-biggest mortgage lender, Yorkshire Building Society.
The news has been spun as an example of intergenerational inequality and a broken housing market, which it is – in part. But there is also something bigger and much more damning going on here: these figures represent a massive transfer of wealth by the middle classes to their children. This is essentially a form of wealth hoarding. Indeed, according to research by Royal London, housing wealth is passed down from generation to generation, and “only around 4 million of the 17 million people in the 25-44 age group are in the fortunate position of having grandparents with housing wealth”. In other words, fewer than one in four.
May 03, 2017 at 04:40PM
from Ellie Mae O’Hagan
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