by Lamiat Sabin

ALMOST all prospective MPs say that they are worried for young constituents who may never afford to get on the slippery housing ladder, a survey revealed yesterday.

The news comes as housing campaigners commemorate “rental freedom day” — the time when private tenants will have earned enough this year to cover annual renting costs, according to research by Halifax bank.

Nine out of 10 politicians vying to win parliamentary seats this week claimed to be concerned about the number of under-30s who will not be able to get a mortgage within 10 years.

Housing has become a key general election issue as the rental market rockets and home ownership is pushed even further out of reach for the majority.

One in five households rent from a private landlord with the sector almost doubling in the past 20 years, according to the National Housing Federation (NHF). The number has overtaken the diminishing population of council and housing association tenants for the first time.

Under-30s have become known as “generation rent” who may never be able to afford to buy homes as housing costs soar while wages stagnate. This 20-30-year-old age group has the lowest homeownership levels of the past 30 years with the average £30,000 deposit being almost 10 times what was needed in the 1980s.

Many are living in childhood bedrooms or at the mercy of a landlord’s eviction notice.

NHF chief executive David Orr said: “The next government must do everything in its power to get the nation building the homes it needs.”

The next prime minister would have to come up with a plan to end the housing crisis “within a generation,” Mr Orr added.

The 101 parliamentary candidates were polled by ComRes for the National Housing Federation.

Halifax researchers found it would take 124 days’ worth of average yearly earnings to live in a three-bedroom rented house in Birmingham. Londoners are faced with the highest rents on average with “rental freedom day” falling much later in the year on July 8.

The bank had marked a “mortgage freedom day” on April 18, suggesting that those privileged to have bought a home are usually rewarded with lower monthly rates than if they rented.