Trend High mortgage rates and rents widening intergenerational wealth gaps

Summary

In its short-term outlook for vulnerable people, the report sees housing costs as a possible driver of inequality between generations. If mortgage rates and rents stay high for a long time, renters will find it harder to buy their first home. The report judges that this could lower home ownership and widen the wealth gap between age groups. It already describes wealth as highly unequal, with the richest tenth of households in Great Britain holding 43% and the poorer half only 9%. As a mitigation, it cites the extra 2 billion pounds announced in the 2025 Spring Statement to deliver up to 18,000 social and affordable homes.