• New figures show home ownership in our area is plummeting faster than anywhere else in the country.
• Former Manchester MP John Leech says: “It’s about time the Government recognised issues outside of the Westminster bubble.”

Plummeting home ownership across Greater Manchester and other major Northern cities shows housing is no longer just a London problem.

English home ownership has fallen to levels last seen in 1986, with Greater Manchester experiencing double digit falls since their early 2000s peak, according to new Resolution Foundation analysis published today.

John Leech, the former Manchester Lib Dem MP, said: “For years, housing, as with many other issues, has been completely fixated on the South.

“These new figures show that it’s about time the government paid attention to Northern cities, and recognised issues, outside of the Westminster bubble.”

The analysis shows that having peaked at 71 per cent in 2003, the proportion of people owning their own home across England has fallen steadily over the last decade by seven per cent.

The Foundation says that while much of the discussion around the struggle to buy a home has centred on London, Greater Manchester has actually recorded the sharpest fall in home ownership of any major city area in the last decade or so.

Back in 2003, 72 per cent of households living in Greater Manchester were owners – slightly above the average across England as a whole. However, home ownership has since plummeted by 14 per cent – more than twice as fast as it has in England – so that by this year year just 58 per cent of households living in Manchester owned their own home.

The Foundation notes that people living in Greater Manchester are no more likely to own a home than people living in Outer London, and that home ownership rates have fallen below all other big Northern city areas apart from Tyne & Wear. It says falling deposit affordability has played a major role in this trend.

This fall in home ownership has corresponded with a near doubling in the proportion of private renters across England, up from 11 per cent in 2003 to 19 per cent in 2015. The proportion of households renting privately in Greater Manchester has more than trebled over that period – from 6 per cent to 20 per cent.

The study also found that fewer than one in ten private renters did not expect to purchase a house because they liked it where they were, while just 1 per cent preferred the flexibility of renting to home ownership.

Stephen Clarke, Policy Analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “The chances of owning a home have fallen fastest in Greater Manchester over the last decade.

“These drops are more than a simple source of frustration for the millions of people who aspire to own their home. The shift to renting privately can reduce current living standards and future wealth, with implications for individuals and the state.”

Home ownership across UK:

Area	Peak of home ownership	Home ownership in Feb-16	Change	Date of peak home ownership
East Anglia	73.4%	66.9%	-6.5%	Oct-03
East Midlands	75.0%	66.9%	-8.1%	Oct-04
Greater Manchester	72.4%	57.9%	-14.5%	Apr-03
Inner London	42.6%	36.4%	-6.2%	Oct-04
Merseyside	71.4%	62.3%	-9.1%	Apr-03
Outer London	71.4%	57.8%	-13.5%	Oct-00
Rest of North West	78.7%	71.4%	-7.3%	Oct-99
Rest of Northern region	72.4%	63.3%	-9.1%	Oct-05
Rest of Scotland	71.5%	63.7%	-7.7%	Oct-04
Rest of South East	75.7%	70.5%	-5.3%	Apr-00
Rest of West Midlands	78.1%	68.7%	-9.5%	Oct-05
Rest of Yorks & Humberside	74.6%	65.0%	-9.5%	Apr-04
South West	75.2%	69.3%	-5.9%	Oct-99
South Yorkshire	68.2%	58.4%	-9.8%	Oct-05
Strathclyde	66.7%	63.3%	-3.4%	Nov-07
Tyne & Wear	64.0%	56.5%	-7.5%	Apr-03
West Midlands (met county)	70.5%	59.3%	-11.2%	Apr-05
West Yorkshire	70.8%	60.2%	-10.6%	Apr-03
England	70.8%	63.8%	-7.0%	Apr-03
Northern Ireland	73.5%	63.0%	-10.5%	Nov-06
Scotland	69.1%	63.5%	-5.6%	Oct-04
UK	70.9%	64.1%	-6.8%	Oct-04
Wales	74.8%	69.6%	-5.1%	May-06