I was quite interested by Peter Preston’s article about the similarities between England and Spain, and his suggestion that Spain should be our closest ally in Europe.  Looking at the two countries, the first instinct is to note the differences rather than the similarities.

I guess that another mistake would be to treat any country as totally homogenous.   Each country has regional variety, just like we do, and you will no more find an archetypal Spaniard than you would a Brit, American or Frenchman.  Indeed the recent French film Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis demonstrates regional differences in that country.

But there is one similarity between Spain and England that Preston did not mention.  I’m pretty sure that I saw statistics showing how Spain and England have similar levels of home ownership – both much higher than in other comparable countries.  If I remember rightly there was some speculation that this shared characteristic can act as a brake on economic growth, or something like that.

I think the theory was that a larger renting population can respond to changes in the job market by relocating more easily.  I don’t know a lot about Spain, apart from having my knowledge about its art greatly expanded in the last year, but I can see how that effect can come about here.  With home ownership the norm, renting opportunities are fewer and consequently more expensive – and social renting is harder to qualify for.  A young adult can therefore find it impossible to pursue job opportunities which are further than a decent commute as they can’t afford to live anywhere but home.  If there are only worse opportunities near home they are being held back.

I suppose that is why we end up in a vicious circle where so much of the country’s jobs get concentrated in one part of the country.  This was what I saw as one of the flaws in the recent kite flown by Carline Flint about social housing. Wasn’t there a suggestion that somebody with a job offer in another town would get priority on the housing register where the job is?  Almost by definition, the areas with jobs are also the areas which already have the greatest pressure for availability of housing.  Surely the solution (longer-term admittedly) is to increase the available housing where there is employment, or even to get the employment opportunities more evenly distributed.

I know that areas like Crawley and Horsham have quite high employment and a lot of employment opportunities, but they also have a chronic shortage of social housing, affordable housing and affordable rented housing.  When I flew the nest I was able to rent a self-contained two-bedroomed flat on the sort of wages you get when you are in your first job.  Someone in the same situation now would be struggling to afford a room in a shared house.  We have no shortage here of rooms in shared houses, courtesy of all the buy-to-let landlords out there, but where can a young couple find a place they can call their own while they are starting out?