It used to be a secret. A quiet shame whispered over pints after work. Now it is a political liability.
Graduates moving back in with Mum and Dad. Not for a month. For years. The 'Boomerang Generation' has become a permanent fixture.
Whitehall is waking up to a crisis. The Treasury's own figures are stark. One-third of 20-34 year olds now live with their parents. Up from a quarter a decade ago. The polling data is brutal for the government. Young voters are not buying homes. They are buying their parents a thank-you card.
A cross-party group of MPs, led by a newly convened Youth Housing Commission, will tomorrow publish a report demanding state intervention. It is not a gentle ask. It is an ultimatum. They want a dedicated 'Homecoming Fund.' First time I heard that phrase, I thought it was a TV show. It is not.
The proposal is simple. Use public land for low-rent 'intermediate' housing. Target those aged 22-30. Not students. Not key workers. The specific group: those who did everything right. Got the degree. Got the job in London. And still cannot afford the deposit. The Department for Levelling Up is apparently 'taking it seriously.' Off the record, a source tells me the Chancellor is 'circling it with red ink.'
Here is the real game. The housing crisis is the invisible axe hanging over the next election. Look at the polling. The Tories are haemorrhaging the under-40s. Labour is circling. And Keir Starmer's team has already started drafting their own rental reform bill. The Liberal Democrats whisper about 'social homeownership' like it is a magic spell.
But a cabinet revolt might be brewing. The Right of the party hates state intervention in housing. They still believe in the property-owning democracy. Buy your own flat. Pull yourself up. They do not understand that young people do not even have a grip to pull on. The backbench 1922 Committee is already grumbling. They call it 'a handout for middle-class kids.' Which is an interesting defence of a policy that helps no one.
The report will also call for a ban on 'no-fault' evictions for tenants under 30. A mirror of the Renters' Reform Bill that keeps getting kicked down the road. The lobby is buzzing with talk of a whip revolt if this goes to a vote. The Chief Whip is a shrewd operator. He will try to gut the bill before it reaches the floor.
My take? This has the hallmarks of a policy that looks good on paper but dies in the machinery of Whitehall. The Treasury hates ring-fenced funds. The DCLG loves announcing them. And the PM is caught between a base that sees housing as a personal responsibility and a country that knows the ladder has been pulled up.
Watch for the Treasury leak. They will brief a friendly columnist that the Homecoming Fund would 'distort the market.' I am told the Economic Secretary already used that phrase in a private meeting last week. Game on.
The young are not a voting bloc. They are a ticking demographic bomb. And the government is trying to defuse it with a policy that costs money in an election year. Good luck.
