Private
and public sector employers should help their employees finance their housing
in areas where the cost of property has dramatically outstripped incomes or
face ever increasing skills shortages according to new research.
The
report by the Institute for Public Policy Research highlights the plight of
many workers on moderate incomes of up to £25,000 who struggle to buy homes,
are excluded from social housing and are forced to rent as a last resort.
IPPR’s
study Squeezed Out suggests that employers support for staff could be
through wage additions, the provision of interest-free loans for a home deposit
or imaginative work-based savings schemes.
It
recommends that employers could do more to respond to the housing needs of
their workers by working with local authorities in developing housing
strategies and contributing to forward planning.
The
study also proposes that employers should explore broader personnel policies to
take the pressure off housing hot spots by locating some functions away from
high housing demand areas.
The
IPPR warns that if companies and public sector organisations ignore the problem
economic growth will suffer because of staff shortages.
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