An Englishman’s home, so the old saw goes, is his castle. Yet some families are taking the maxim so literally that they are exacerbating a crisis of inadequate supply. Christopher Pincher, the housing minister, noted this week the reluctance of elderly owner-occupiers to surrender their empty nests and downsize.
To upbraid well-off pensioners is a bold gambit but Mr Pincher is right. Nearly four in ten homes in Britain are under-occupied — or, to put it more plainly, unnecessarily large for their owners. This is a failure of government policy and the housing market and it would be a good to correct it. Encouragingly, Mr Pincher says Michael Gove, the housing secretary, has a plan to do so. But how?
So far discussions within government have focused on the provision of homes built specially for the elderly, only 7,000 of which are constructed a year. Mr Gove rightly wants the figure to rise. That alone, however, will not be enough. Barriers to downsizing are as much emotional as they are economic. Few couples, or indeed widows or widowers, will relish the final departure from a family home freighted with happy memories. And it is nothing short of patronising to suggest that every pensioner rattling around in a detached house must instead embrace the granny flat or assisted living.
Thankfully, there is an obvious alternative long advocated by the housing industry: generous tax incentives for those wishing to downsize. One disincentive to move is the high rate of stamp duty for purchasing a new property. An inventive government should offer to waive stamp duty as long as senior citizens downsize and make their old homes available to young families. Ministers could also consider subsidies for those who wish to convert larger homes into flats. Leaving home is never easy, but it should at least be made cheaper.
