Housing needs of young people

Summary

Young people are disproportionately affected by the housing crisis. Rates of home ownership have fallen, and more young people are living in the private rented sector, where housing costs as a proportion of income are highest among younger renters.

Under 30s spend more of their income on essentials compared to other age groups and young people face distinct risks of homelessness.

Government policy focuses on boosting housing supply, reforming the private rented sector, supporting first‑time buyers and preventing youth homelessness.

Intergenerational fairness

Young people’s access to housing has been considered within the context of ‘intergenerational fairness’. For example, a 2024 report from the Intergenerational Foundation (IF) highlighted that young people are disproportionately affected by the housing crisis, “be it through unaffordable rents, insecure tenures, being stuck in the private rental market, or not having the same access to social housing as previous generations” (p8). Specifically, the IF has pointed out that home ownership is moving further away from younger generations because house price to income ratios have worsened and rental costs have limited young people’s ability to save for a deposit.

The IF has also highlighted that people aged under 30 are having to spend a higher proportion of their income on essentials compared to any other age group.

The Resolution Foundation’s 2024 intergenerational audit for the UK drew attention to a “powerful trend towards young people living with their parents for longer”. Data from the latest census shows that in 2021 nearly 3.8 million families in England and Wales had adult children living with them, 13.6% more than 2011. The average (median) age of adult children living with their parents in England and Wales in 2021 was 24 years, one year older than in 2011. In a separate publication, the ONS has suggested that “increased housing costs” is one of several factors that may explain this trend.

In 2019, the House of Lords Intergenerational Fairness and Provision Committee concluded that many young people were finding it difficult to secure affordable housing because of a failure to ensure the sufficient supply of affordable homes to buy and to rent. The House of Lords Library briefing on Housing needs of young people (March 2024) provides further information.

Home ownership

In May 2024, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) published its analysis of homeownership by age group from 1995 to 2022. It found that 39% of 25- to 34-year-olds in the UK owned their home in 2022 compared with “the peak” of 59% in 2000.

The Resolution Foundation’s 2023 intergenerational audit found that while home ownership rates had increased between 2013 and 2021 after a period of decline, young people in 2021 were still “half as likely” to own their own home than thirty years earlier.

Modelling by the Resolution Foundation suggests that from 1997 to 2025, the size of a 5% deposit on a modest starter home has more than doubled relative to median earnings.

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into the affordability of home ownership.

Housing supply

Many young people find it difficult to secure affordable housing. The governments is prioritising increasing the supply of social and affordable housing as part of its wider housing supply target.

As part of its Plan for Change, the government has committed to deliver 1.5 million new homes in England during this parliament and the biggest increase in the supply of social and affordable housing in a generation.

The government has also said it will publish a long-term housing strategy setting out its vision for the housing market. The government will publish the long-term housing strategy “shortly”.

The Commons Library has a data dashboard on housing supply in local authorities in England, broken down by tenure, net supply of new housing, and supply of affordable housing.

Social and affordable housing supply

On 2 July 2025, the government published a policy paper, Delivering a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing, which sets out a five-step plan to:

• deliver the biggest boost to grant funding in a generation
• rebuild the sector’s capacity to borrow and invest in new and existing homes
• establish an effective and stable regulatory regime
• reinvigorate council housebuilding
• forge a renewed partnership with the sector to build at scale

The Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook provided an update on the government’s five-step plan in a written statement on 28 January 2026. The above-linked policy paper has since been updated to reflect the government’s progress.

Funding for social and affordable housing

At the Spending Review on 11 June 2025 the Chancellor announced new funding for social and affordable housing across multiple programmes, including £39 billion for a new 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) 2026-2036.

On 7 November 2025, the government launched the full details of the SAHP, which said the programme could deliver around 300,000 affordable homes, of which 180,000 would be for social rent. In response to a parliamentary question on the provision of one‑bedroom social rented homes for young people within the 180,000 home target, the Housing Minister said on 7 January 2026 that this would be a matter for local authorities to address via their local planning policies.

Information on measures to accelerate housing delivery through the planning system is set out below.

The government has stated that it expects the SAHP to support an increase in supported housing, across a range of housing types and cohorts, including vulnerable young people.

Section 1.5 of the Commons Library briefing Estimates Day debate: Spending of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (June 2025) provides information on social and affordable housing supply, including background on government investment.

During a debate on the provision of council housing on 15 September 2025, the Housing Minister described council housebuilding as an essential element of the strategy to increase social and affordable housing supply. Step four of the government’s five-step plan provides further detail on reinvigorating council housebuilding.

Speeding up housing delivery through changes to the planning system

The government has said it will “fix the foundations of our housing and planning system” to help deliver 1.5 million homes in this Parliament. To achieve this, since coming to power in July 2024 the government has:

• Published a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in December 2024 with a new standard method for calculating housing need, and new criteria-based policies setting out where development is possible on land in the Green Belt.
• Introduced new legislation, with the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025which establishes a new approach for strategic planning for housing through Spatial Development Strategies and revises decision making procedures for planning applications by delegating certain decisions to planning officers with the aim of streamlining and speeding up decision making.
• Announced specific interventions for speeding up housing delivery in Londonin October 2025.
• Consulted on a new NPPF in December 2025 alongside a range of measures to support delivery of development. The NPPF would introduce a "rules-based approach" setting out where housing development is acceptable in principle subject to criteria-based policies and have policies to better support social and affordable housing delivery.

Government support for first-time buyers

The government has a range of home ownership schemes to support first-time buyers:

• Mortgage Guarantee Scheme - to support and sustain the availability of low deposit mortgage products.
• First Homes - properties are discounted by a minimum of 30% against the market value.
• Shared ownership - enables people to buy a share of a property and pay a subsidised rent on the remaining share.
• Rent to Buy - helps tenants in England save for a deposit to buy a home by offering properties to rent at a discount (normally 20% below market rent). Properties in London are covered by a separate scheme calledLondon Living Rent.
• Forces Help to Buy - enables service personnel to borrow up to 50% of their salary, up to a maximum of £25,000 interest free towards the purchase of a property.
• Right to Buy - enables eligible council tenants to buy their home with a discount.
• Lifetime ISA - helps first-time buyers save for their first home.

The government’s webpage Affordable home ownership schemes provides links to further information.

The private rented sector (PRS)

The Intergenerational Foundation says that young people are overrepresented in the PRS, “both due to their inability to buy a home and because social housing is not as available as an option for current generations in comparison to the availability of social housing for previous generations” (p32).

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), across the UK in the year ending 31 March 2024, 32% of renters in the PRS were aged 25 to 34 years (the most common age group) and 24% were aged 35 to 44 years.

Affordability – income to rent ratios

The ONS has estimated that private renters in England spent an average of 36.3% of their income on rent in 2024. The ONS considers rent to be "affordable" if a private-renting household would spend the equivalent of 30% or less of their gross income on rent and it estimates the proportion spent on rent has remained above 30% in England since 2016.

In April 2026, the charity, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, published a briefing on the affordability challenges facing private renters. It noted affordability ratios were particularly high in London where private renters were spending around 46% of their incomes on rents in 2023/24.

Looking specifically at age, the English Housing Survey found younger age groups spent a larger proportion of their household income on rent compared to other age groups in 2022/23. It estimated for those aged 16 to 24, private renters spent 46% and social renters spent 29% of their income on rent.

Local Housing Allowance

Some private renters can receive help with their housing costs through the benefit system, capped by Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates.

Restricted in various forms since 2011 as part of wider government efforts to control benefit expenditure, LHA has failed to keep pace with rising rents. Analysis from the homelessness charity, Crisis, found that between April and October 2024, fewer than 3% of private homes were affordable for benefit claimants, with the largest shortfalls in London. The Resolution Foundation has looked at how the widening gap is reducing household incomes.

A coalition of 40 organisations has called on the government to restore LHA to the 30th percentile from 2026/27.

The government says it is keeping rates under review as part of it National Plan to End Homelessness.

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025

The Renters’ Rights Act (RRA) 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. The act implements commitments in the 2024 Labour Party manifesto to reform how the PRS is regulated and give greater rights and protections to people renting their homes.

While the RRA 2025 has received Royal Assent, most of its provisions are not yet in force. The act is being implemented in phases. The Commons Library constituency casework page Renters’ reform in England: What’s happening and when? (December 2025) provides further information.

Centrepoint has written about what the RRA 2025 means for young people. It says that many of the changes “are desperately needed” to address some of the challenges they can currently face when trying to find and secure affordable housing in the PRS market. Centrepoint also notes that the act’s success will depend on how it is implemented. They say that young renters will need to have clear information to understand their rights and there needs to be strong enforcement when the act’s provisions are not complied with.

Homelessness - young people

Research has identified many inter-related factors that can cause or increase someone’s risk of experiencing homelessness, some of which are structural, and some personal or interpersonal. Further information is provided in section 1 of the Commons Library briefing Statutory homelessness (England): Causes and government policy (July 2024).

A range of issues particularly affect young people, increasing their risk of homelessness. These include the following:

• Lack of affordable housing (MHCLG, Causes of homelessness and rough sleeping feasibility study, 25 March 2019)
• Relationship breakdown with family, often influenced by other factors like employment and mental and/or physical health issues (Centrepoint, Failure to Act - The scale of youth homelessness in the UK – full report, 2023)
• Increases to the cost-of-living (Intergenerational Foundation, Blowing the budget: Why the young have to spend more than the old on essentials, November 2024)
• Impact of welfare reforms including sanctions, and the capping of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) to the Shared Accommodation Rate (SAR) for under-35s. These issues can limit the proportion of homes in the private rented sector that young people can afford if they receive benefits to help pay their housing costs (Centrepoint, Move on for young people experiencing homelessness in 2023/24, April 2025).
• Barriers to employment when receiving benefits while living in supported accommodation. The way a resident’s benefit is worked out can act as a barrier to young people working more hours and becoming financially independent (Rightsnet, ‘End the benefit trap for homeless young people in supported accommodation to ‘make work pay’’ (login required), November 2025).
• Having experience of being in care. Young people leaving care are a particularly vulnerable group who “are at significantly higher risk of homelessness than their peers who have not experienced care” (Centre for Homelessness Impact, November 2023, p3).

Statutory homelessness among young people

Since April 2018, local authorities in England have had a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent homelessness for households at risk of becoming homeless within 56 days (a prevention duty), and relieve homelessness for homeless households (a relief duty). These duties were introduced through the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) 2017.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) collects data from local authorities on their statutory prevention and relief duties. The most recent data is for July to September 2025, when 81,360 households were assessed as being owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness. The most common age group among people owed a duty was 25 to 34 (27.8% of applicants owed a duty were in this age group). This trend has remained consistent since the introduction of the HRA 2017. Applicants aged 18 to 24 represented 17.8% of households owed a duty in July to September 2025.

Centrepoint’s homelessness databank

National youth homelessness charity, Centrepoint, uses data it collects through freedom of information requests alongside official statistics to "provide a full picture of youth homelessness" in England. According to their 2024/25 analysis 107,585 young people faced homelessness between April 2024 and March 2025, a 6% increase on the previous year’s figures.

Centrepoint adds that their research indicates more than a third of the young people who approached their local authority in England during the year did not receive a formal assessment under the homelessness legislation, which is the first step to accessing statutory support. Centrepoint says this means “many young people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness have been denied the assessments they were legally entitled to and consequently missed out on the support they may have required.”

Government action on youth homelessness

The government has said it “has provided more than £1 billion funding for homelessness and rough sleeping services this year, which councils can use to meet the needs of people in their area including young people.” It is also taking action to provide targeted support to help prevent youth homelessness through its National Homelessness Strategy, which is outlined below.

The Labour government’s cross-government strategy, A National Plan to End Homelessness (published on 11 December 2025) sets out the government’s “long-term vision to end homelessness and rough sleeping and make sure everyone has access to a safe, decent and secure home.” The strategy, backed by £3.5 billion in funding over three years (2026-2029), aims to prevent and reduce homelessness in general, including among young people. However, some commitments are specifically relevant to young people. These include:

• developing a national Youth Homelessness Prevention Toolkit and a dedicated chapter in the statutory homelessness code of guidance.
• delivering and investing in a range of measures to support action to help young people at an earlier stage.
• supporting more care leavers under the age of 25 to access social housing and committing to reduce homelessness among care leavers.
• supporting councils to provide rent deposit support to young people, including through Rent Guarantor schemes, starting with care leavers and extending to other young people.
• investing in employment, skills and local labour market initiatives such as:
  • increasing the minimum wage by 4.1% to £12.71 per hourfor eligible workers aged 21 and over. This will commence from 1 April 2026.
  • Introducing a new Youth Guarantee to ensure young people can access education, training, or help finding a job or an apprenticeship.
  • increasing funding for employment support to over £7 billion by 2028-29.
• launching a Better Futures Fund through which the government will look to improve outcomes for youth and family homelessness.
• addressing the work disincentive for people living in support accommodation (mentioned above).

Annotated list of parliamentary questions

Homelessness: Young People (UIN 113761, answered 15 February 2026)

Asks about steps being taken to prevent youth homelessness. Answer mentions increased funding and the National Plan to End Homelessness.

Supported Housing: Young People (UIN 107220, answered 28 January 2026)

Asked about support for young people requiring supported accommodation. Answer mentions guidance to help local authorities assess and plan for existing need. It also refers to funding for housing support services and opportunities to access funding for new supply.

Shared Ownership Schemes: Young People (UIN 81776, answered 21 October 2025)

Asked about effectiveness of Shared Ownership Scheme in helping with young people become home owners. Answer says the evidence suggested that shared ownership has helped younger home buyers.

Owner Occupation: Young People (UIN 76219, answered 17 September 2025)

Asked about the impact of house price growth on home ownership rates among young people. Answer mentions shared ownership, Lifetime ISAs, the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, and home ownership initiatives offered at the local level in the East of England.