‘Young people see no future, it’s so sad’: Is London too expensive?

We ask Londoners whether or not London is an affordable city to live in after a charity recommended a 5% London living wage increase.

Transcript

00:00This area has changed massively. The house that my parents purchased on their salaries when I was a kid

00:06was, it was something like $250,000 or whatever, which is still pretty high I think.

00:11And then now it's worth like over a million or whatever, but it's it's just a regular townhouse

00:15and it's even it's one half of a conjoined house to begin with. The prices in this area

00:20specifically have skyrocketed and I think that this area in some ways acts as a microcosm

00:24for London at large. London has become dramatically more expensive.

00:27Yes, I'd like to go back and live in my birth, my birth sort of young area like Brixton. I cannot

00:33afford it. I'd like to go back there. I was born at Elephant and Castle. I'd like to go back and

00:38live there, to be honest with you. But I cannot afford to go back there. I have to stay out here

00:42I'm afraid, here in Crystal Palace. But I would like to go back and live in Brixton. Cannot afford

00:48it. So it has become more expensive, more in the inflation, yes. Expanding the London living wage

00:53by 5% specifically is a great idea. I think across the country there needs to be an increase in the

00:58minimum wage regardless. I think any problem that can be seen in London will be eventually be seen

01:02or felt by the rest of the country at large. If Crystal Palace is a microcosm of London,

01:06then London is itself a microcosm of the larger country. And so, yeah, I think increasing any

01:12attempt to increase the living wage or increase the minimum wage is great. It needs to suit the

01:16area in which we live and everybody should be able to live without feeling like they're on the

01:20breadline having to watch the pennies for every single thing and be able to do things that make

01:24them happy. So I think raising that is a really good idea. And a lot of young people now, even

01:32some of them sadly, are suicidal because they see no future. And I think that's very, very sad.

01:39Yeah, I do. I mean, I'm in a good way to feel privileged in that respect, but I still find

01:46it difficult. And, you know, we're considering whether it's time to move out of London somewhere

01:52a little bit cheaper so we can save a bit more and, you know, think about buying a house,

01:56as well as just, you know, general expenses being a lot lower.