Hello and welcome to Trigonometry I'm Francis Foster and

this is a show for you if you want honest conversations with fascinating guests.

Our brilliant returning guests this week is an economist, journalist and the author of this

brilliant book Home Truths which is about the housing crisis.

Liam Halligan.

Oh, it's me, it's me, okay.

It's you. Welcome back to Chigan.

Nice to see you guys.

And congratulations on your success with the podcast.

Well, it's partly thanks to you. you were one of the very few people who came

on the show initially just my arm I did have to twist your arm those Russian tactics

I did have to twist your arm but you're very kind you came on and now you were very glad to welcome you back.

You've written what I think is a book about probably the crucial issue of our day at the moment.

I don't see a bigger issue that's a challenge to our society in real terms right now.

The housing crisis and one of the things I didn't know before reading the book was it's so much

worse in this country than it is around the West which I didn't know was the case.

So before we get into talking about it, lay out the scale of the problem for us.

Well the scale of the problem is that home ownership in the UK has gone from 73% of households a decade ago

to a little more than 60% now. But within that home ownership among 25 to

39 year olds is absolutely plummeted from well over 60% to

well below 40% that crucial family forming age.

At the same time today's young adults are spending more on rent and are less

...