Twenty years ago, fewer than one person in ten lived in private rented accommodation. One in five does so today. Among those aged between 25 and 34, the proportion renting in the private sector has tripled to over 30 per cent.

That is an extraordinary social change occurring over a short period and overturning decades of change in the other direction. Private renting had been in decline since the early years of the 20th century. Most rental properties ended up in the social sector, while home ownership rose generation by generation. That has gone into sharp reverse. Fewer than half of 25 to 34-year-olds are now owner-occupiers, down from two thirds only 20 years ago.

The change has been especially dramatic for those on middling