Voters to hit Tories hard as property ladder pulled up

The Conservatives have been warned they face an existential crisis over housing after new figures showed ownership has declined in dozens of seats held by the party.

- MATT MATHERS

Home ownership is down in a fifth of all seats currently held by the Conservatives, analysis of Census data by The Independent reveals. The number of people owning a property dropped by almost a quarter in some constituencies once considered Conservative strongholds in the decade between 2011 and 2021.

The figures led one academic to suggest young people may “never forgive” the party for their inability to get on the housing ladder and being left renting for life. While ownership has declined in nearly half of seats held by Labour (48 per cent), experts say the Tories are more likely to be hurt at the polls due to the higher levels of home ownership among Conservatives.

At the 2019 general election, an Ipsos Mori study found 315 of the 365 seats won by the Conservatives (86 per cent) had above average levels of home ownership, compared to just 53 of Labour’s 202 seats (26 per cent).

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said it had “long been the case” that people who own their own homes tended to vote Conservative. “In the long term, the Tories have created a generation or two of young adults – some well into their thirties – who might never forgive them for denying them what they grew up assuming would one day be theirs almost by right,” he said.