John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing and Planning, responding to new figures released today showing that home-ownership has fallen sharply over the last five years, said:

“These damning new government figures show that there are now more than 200,000 fewer home-owning households than in 2010 when David Cameron became Prime Minister.

“It also confirms that for young people, home-ownership has been in free-fall. After yet another year of decline, there are now more than 340,000 fewer young households owning a home, down more than a fifth since 2010.

“Meanwhile, the number of people stuck in an insecure and increasingly expensive private rented sector has grown dramatically over the last five years.

“The truth is Tory Ministers have no long-term plan to fix England’s cost of housing crisis. The test for Ministers over the next five years will be whether they can convince people that the cost of a decent home for them and their family isn’t spiralling even further out of reach.”