Life for most people has improved since the 1950s, but at least back then you could afford a house
Emily is 72. She left school after her A-levels, joined a local accountancy firm as a clerical assistant and was sponsored through her accountancy qualifications by her company while she was working. She married at the age of 23, bought her first house for £12,000 with her partner a couple of years later and had two children. Today, she and her husband have paid off the mortgage on their £600,000 house and have a healthy savings pot and a combined income of £50,000 from their pensions.
Emma is 27. She also wanted to become an accountant, so went to university to do a degree in business, then got her first trainee accountant job at 22. On top of tax, she’s paying 9% of her income above a £20k threshold towards her student loan. Given the interest rates on her loan, she expects to be doing this until her early 50s, when any remaining loan will be written off. She’s spending more than half her income renting a room in a houseshare. She’d love to buy a one-bed flat with her partner in the next few years but neither has savings or parents who can help them out and between rent and student loan payments they can’t see themselves ever being able to save a deposit. Emma’s situation in 2022 isn’t great. But it gets progressively worse. In 2037, they’re renting a two-bed flat without a garden – luckier than many, but tough with two children under 10. They’re still spending most of their income on rent. Ten years on, they’ve had to move twice, once having to move the children to a different school, because of landlords putting up the rent. They’re still in a small flat and they’re worrying about retirement in 20 years’ time: they have no savings, threadbare pensions and don’t know how they’re going to carry on paying rent once they stop working.
