The average savings per person in the UK stood at £9,633 in 2020. According to Raisin's survey of more than 2,000 Brits, the total average amount of savings in the UK was £35,361.09; however, the average, i.e. excluding the biggest and lowest savers, amounted to slightly over £9,000 per person.
That same survey noted that “almost 1 in 5 of those aged 55 and over, in or approaching retirement age has less than £1,000 in savings.
Some complained that Allsopp had no idea of the reality of the situation.
Some agreed wholeheartedly with her comments. I suspect many reading this may find it impossible to believe that anyone could ever afford to buy a house back in the day. Saving a deposit was as hard then as it is now. But to service a mortgage today, the cost has never been so low.
Her article notes that the “average deposit for a first-time buyer in 2022 is £59,000, according to Halifax. To save that, you would need to forgo your Starbucks latte, Netflix subscription, gym membership and easyJet flights for quite a while to be fair!
She could have added University fees, they represent a significant debt that is also factored into mortgage affordability? In a post-Covid UK, the debate has started about what value a degree has linked to the debt it creates.
By contrast, in the US, most students seem to get jobs to help fund their degree! In the UK a third of students are not even working part time, in or out of term time, to supplement student loans.
But what is possible today for so many young, Gen Z first-time-buyers is a load more support than I ever had. That includes all sorts of help from Right to Buy schemes, equity share, housing association, affordable homes, and the bank of Mum and Dad, all on top of such low rates of interest.
How much more must be given to young people today when some simple self-help, restraint and a work ethic could do just as well?
After all, if you have earned and saved that deposit money it will actually mean something more surely? You will have created a sense of value, something Allsopp did not speak about?
Derek Bradley is the founder of Panacea Adviser
