Millions use payday loans to cover mortgage and rental costs
I have this terrible foreboding that 2012 will be the year that the austerity measures we are living with come home to roost in terms of very widespread hardship for those sectors of society normally able to ride out economic shocks. This will mean in essence that things are cutting far deeper than most of us will be able to remember economically.
The article identifies findings from a Shelter survey which reveals:
“Almost a million people have turned to a high cost payday loan to cover their mortgage or rent in the past year, the homelessness charity Shelter has claimed. A further 6 million have used other types of credit, including unauthorised overdrafts, other loans or credit cards, to help pay their housing costs, it said.”
I suspect that the impact of this in rural England, already suffering a major housing crisis, will lead to an exacerbation of the shortage of affordable homes and increasing exclusivity of large swathes of our more affluent rural communities. This will be socially divisive and lead to more rural settlements losing their vitality in terms of justifying schools and other services as hard pressed families have to move out.
No wonder we have over 50 bookings for our seminar on rural affordable housing at the University of Gloucestershire next week.