The 26 Sq Metre Cubes Used To House Homeless People

This week the YMCA launches Y:Cube, an accommodation project in Mitcham, south London. The development is made up of 36 self-contained, one-bedroom flats, each with their own bathroom, living room and kitchen, inside a compact 26 sq metre unit. They are factory built off-site and installed for just £55,000 each. The YMCA developed the scheme to provide move-on homes for young people who are ready to leave their accommodation, but cannot move into the private rented sector due to high costs or lack of availability. Meanwhile, nine out of 10 YMCAs have turned a young person away due to capacity issues. Read more on the Guardian website.

Entry-Level Workers Driven Out Of London by Soaring Rents

London's housing shortage is driving graduates and low-paid workers to move further from the capital, prompting fears of an imminent jobs crisis as businesses struggle to recruit entry-level labour. According to the CBI's new poll of London-based businesses, some 57pc of bosses said that the high cost and low availability of housing was affecting their ability to recruit staff for lower-wage jobs. Almost a third said that employees were having to leave their jobs because costs are too high. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Supply of Help to Buy Homes Falls by Over 7% in a Year

The supply of homes available under the Help to Buy scheme has declined by 7.4% in a year and the average prices has risen by 5.5%. The worst affected area is Stockport where the number of available homes has fallen by 24.3%, according to new research from property firm Zoopla. The analysis of properties for sale in England and Wales up to a value of £600,000 also shows that on a regional basis the biggest fall in properties eligible for Help to Buy has been in the East of England, with a 12.3% reduction in suitable stock on the market, while average prices have climbed 6.1% over the same period. Read more on the Property Wire website.

Parents Evicting Their Own Children to Get Them into a Social House

Children are being evicted by their parents so they can get a social house, a report has revealed. Politicians will meet to discuss Three Rivers District Council’s homelessness strategy, which sets out how the authority will tackle homelessness across the district. A council report claims some parents were evicting their children so they could get their own accommodation and suggested there was evidence linking the number of parental evictions to the lack of social housing. Lack of social housing and high private sector rents were identified as the main barriers to tackling homelessness in the district over the next two years. Read more on the Watford Observer website.

How to Fix the UK's Housing Mess

The high cost and low availability of housing is already causing political trouble. It is one of the arguments used by UKIP for pulling out of the EU and controlling immigration. The housing mess is also prompting Britain's mainstream political parties to come up with foolish policies. The Conservative-led government's flagship scheme - Help to Buy -helps people who wouldn't otherwise have a big enough deposit to buy a home. Its main effect will be to increase demand further, so pushing up prices, rather than increase the supply of homes. Meanwhile, the opposition Labour Party has promised to institute a type of rent control if it comes to power. That sounds nice for tenants. But it too would rig the market, deterring landlords from building new homes to rent. A better solution is not to distort the housing market but to remove existing distortions so that it operates more freely. Read more on the Yahoo! Finance website.