Hello, I'm Katie Balls and welcome to a special edition of Women of Balls, sponsored by Lloyd's Banking Group.

Today, I'm joined by a panel of guests to talk about an issue that affects many people up and down the country, if not all, and particularly in my generation, the housing crisis.

Over the past year of intermittent lockdowns, many of us have spent more time staring at the four walls of our living room than we ever thought possible, let alone desirable.

One of the big factors affecting a person's pandemic experience is the type of accommodation they're in.

8.4 million people in England are living in unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable homes.

2.5 million adults are living with their parents because they cannot afford to move out. Only one third of the so-called

millennials are on the property ladder. The housing crisis can be particularly acute for women,

with research by the women's budget group finding it disproportionately affects females as a result

of trends in lower pay as well as family

pressures. Single mothers represent two-thirds of all statutory homeless families. There are various

schemes underway to help fix a problem of unaffordable housing, promises to build more homes,

slightly derailed by a mutant algorithm, a stamp duty holiday and perhaps most promising,

first-time buyers, a new mortgage guarantee system

but potential homeowners only need a 5% deposit. So to discuss the persistent problems and the potential

solutions, I'm delighted to be joined by Thangham Devonair, the Shadow Secretary of State for Housing,

Natalie Elphick, the Conservative MP for Dover and chair of the new homes quality board,

and Esther Dexter, the managing directive intermediaries at Lloyd's Banking Group. Thank you all for

joining me today. Then going to start with, could you just update listeners on the current

problems the first-time buyer would face when it comes to the housing market?

So we've got a real crisis in affordability. And actually,

that's not just in buying your own home. That's also whether you rent in the private sector and it

also varies according to where you live in the country. And that means a crisis whereby if you are on a

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