Letter: Saving for a home is not as straightforward as you think
I felt I had to reply to the letter from Stephen Evans, of Horton, concerning rent and wages figures and the ability of people being able to afford a deposit for a house.
He states that rents have come down lately; even if this were true, what about the last 20 years or more? He quotes a figure of £465 for a two-bedroom rented property; this is too high if someone is on the minimum wage, which thousands of people are!
He also quotes that wages in Telford have gone up. If you have been laid off and then have to take a lower paid job, which thousands have had to, I can assure you this is not the case.
The average wage can be very misleading especially if the top is £50,000 and the bottom is £10,000.
Finally he states that saving for a deposit is often a matter of lifestyle spending choices. That's absolute rubbish. He says there are dozens of two and three bedroom houses for sale at £80,000-£100,000 and that this would only mean a deposit of £4,000 for a young couple.
What he doesn't explain is how long does he believe it would take to save this amount, taking in to account all of the following: low wages, rising water, electric and gas bills, council tax, petrol/diesel costs, food, car parking increases... the list is endless.
On top of all of this, we are enduring the catastrophic austerity measures being imposed upon us by the bungling coalition government.
A J Plant
New Works
