Housing in Britain: Rooms for improvement 英国的住房问题：进步空间

How to solve Britain's housing mess? 如何解决英国的住房危机？

On every side, Britain's politicians are grappling with problems of immense scale and nightmarish complexity. 在各个方面，英国政客都在与大规模且噩梦般错综复杂的问题斗争。

How to manage the departure from the European Union? 如何解决脱欧带来的影响？

How to help a crumbling health service cope with an ageing, weakening population? 如何帮助一个摇摇欲坠的公共医疗服务应对人口日益老龄化且日益衰弱的情况？

How to deal with persistent regional deprivation? 如何应对持续的地域性贫困？

Yet one national scourge that holds back the economy and poisons politics is readily solvable—politicians just need to be brave enough to act. 然而一个国家的祸害比如阻碍经济和政治影响是容易解决的，政客们只需要足够勇敢的行为。

That scourge is the cost of housing. 这个灾祸是住房的成本。

The ratio of median house prices to earnings in England hit 7.7 in 2016, its highest recorded level. 2016年，英国平均房价与收入的比率达到了7.7，创历史最高水平。

In the past four decades house prices have grown by more in Britain than in any other G7 country. 在过去的四十年，英国的房价已经上涨得比其它G7国家还要多。

Home ownership has been falling for more than a decade, after rising for most of the past century. 在过去大半个世纪上涨之后，住房自有率已经连续十年下跌。

In London housing is outlandishly dear: before the Brexit vote sent the pound tumbling, it was the priciest city in the world for renters. 在伦敦，住房是出奇的昂贵：在英国退欧公投之前，英镑暴跌，伦敦是世界上租房价格最高的城市。

The cost of housing has knock-on effects across the economy. 住房成本对整个经济产生了连锁反应。

As people are forced out to the suburbs, cities become less dynamic. 当人们被迫搬到郊区时，城市变得不那么有活力了。

Workers waste time on marathon, energy-sapping commutes. 工人们把时间浪费在马拉松式、消耗能量的通勤上。

People from the regions cannot afford to move to cities where they might find work. 郊区的人们支付不起搬到他们可能找到工作的城区的费用。

Businesses cannot clear land to build. 企业不能清理土地用以建设。

It is perhaps no coincidence that Britain's growing housing mess has coincided with stagnant productivity. 英国日益增长的住房市场混乱与生产力停滞相吻合，这也许不是巧合。

All this has fostered a growing sense of inequity. 所有这些都滋生了一种日益增长的不平等感。

Britons over the age of 65, a fifth of the population, own over 40% of the housing wealth held by owner-occupiers. 年龄超过65岁的英国人占人口的五分之一，他们以业主占有的方式拥有40%的房屋财产。

Youngsters with rich parents can buy their first house thanks to the “Bank of Mum and Dad”. 有富有父母的年轻人可以买他们的第一套房，多亏了“爸妈的银行”。

Everyone else must resign themselves to renting small properties for life, or to continuing to pay off their mortgage long after retirement. 其他的人则必须放弃自己的意愿，终身租着小房子，或者在退休很久后继续偿还贷款。