Why Generation Rent are so angry
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2023
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Private rents are soaring, homes to rent are in steep decline, house building has stalled. No wonder young people are full of rage about their chances of getting onto the housing ladder.
On this week’s podcast Amol and Nick take a deep dive into what’s going wrong with housing in the UK – and what can be done to fix it.
They’re joined by Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, who will be tasked with fixing the housing crisis if Labour win the next general election. And they’re also joined by Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, which campaigns to improve the housing system for young people.
Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme.
If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
The producers are Tom Smithard and Rufus Gray. The editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Studio direction from Jack Graysmark.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Nick, it seems that something we said last week has really struck a chord. |
| 0:09.5 | Hi, Nick and Amel. I just want to say thank you for speaking to the real frustration that young people are feeling in your previous podcast. I'm about to graduate university and I'm very interested in politics, but I don't think many politicians understand how the under 30s feel. Oh, thank you, Isabel. I happen to know that you're 21 years old, and you speak for so many, Isabel. I spend a lot of time with the young people trying to help them to get on in the world. And I know there is this generational rage that so many people your age and a bit older feel. Or if you don't feel rage, you feel despondent because you think your future's being stolen from you. It's injury, I've got kids in their 20s. If it's not the impact of COVID, if it's not anxiety about war in the Middle East as well, if it's not the kind of angry and divisive politics and social media. It's the kind of very basic things as well |
| 0:54.5 | that get to people, which is, I just want a house. I know I'm probably not going to be able to |
| 0:59.4 | buy a house, say people in their 20s, but it's even difficult now to rent a home because rents are |
| 1:05.1 | soaring and the number of properties available are shrinking. Housing is everything. So many are the great challenges that we face as a |
| 1:12.6 | country from addiction to debt to inequality of opportunity, to intergenerational injustice, |
| 1:17.9 | to something I'm obsessed with, which is a declining birth rate. So many of them come down to |
| 1:23.2 | housing and the failures of housing policy. We're going to be joined here by Angela Rainer. She is the |
| 1:28.9 | deputy leader of the Labour Party and has recently taken control for labour of housing policy. |
| 1:35.3 | And she wants to offer people like you, Isabel, some real hope. She said something Angela Rainer |
| 1:40.1 | really intriguing, I thought the other day. The foundations of what made a good life when I was young, she said. |
| 1:47.2 | Decent wages, strong communities, wait for it. |
| 1:50.0 | An affordable home. |
| 1:51.8 | They, she said, are all crumbling. |
| 1:55.0 | Well, that's what we're looking at. |
| 1:56.5 | Why Generation Rent are so angry. |
| 1:59.6 | Let's do it. |
| 2:00.2 | Let's do it. |
| 2:13.4 | Tingling, isn't it that music? |
| 2:15.0 | Welcome back, you lucky listeners. |
| 2:16.2 | It's good to be with you again. |
| 2:19.4 | This is a Mole in a makeshift today podcast studio. |
... |
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