Shocking Truth Revealed: Home Ownership Linked to Conservative Voting!

Does being an owner make you a curator? That assumption is resurfacing, this time in Missing Millennials, a report by think tank Onward UK, led by FT alum Sebastian Payne. The report asks, poignantly enough, why 30-somethings don’t become right-wing voters as age, wisdom and taxes roll in.

In the introduction, Tory MP Bim Afolami invokes the homebuilders of former Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Margaret Thatcher, who sold social housing, as the snake charmers of the Tory vote. But millennials, according to the report, are failing to acquire the traditional symbols of adulthood that were meant to turn them into right-wing voters. Top of the list: owning a home.

But another study tells a different story: Buying a home has nothing to do with your political tastes. New owners, if any, drift gently to the left.

Research from the UK, Germany and Switzerland, published in 2021, looked for political opinions on the road to homeownership and the years beyond. Even the study’s authors, Sinisa Hadziabdic and Sebastian Kohl, seemed surprised to find that home ownership favored social democratic parties over right-wing parties. In the UK, the transition to ownership marked a significant change from the Conservatives.

It is difficult to conceive: consider any electoral map, not just that of the United Kingdom, but also that of other Western countries, where there is a patchwork of urban centers teeming with leftist tenants while the country homes and suburban semi-urbans are majority Conservative-owned. voters.

Following the 2019 election, the Office for National Statistics found that 315 of the 365 seats held by the Conservatives had homeownership rates above the national average. Labor, on the other hand, had only 53.

This belief, that owning a home fundamentally changes your political inclinations, dates back to Friedrich Engels The housing issue: “the worker who owns a small house worth a thousand taler is certainly no longer a proletarian.” Conservatives clung to the theories of a communist. But Engels’ footnote to his proposal is often ignored: it doesn’t make the worker a capitalist either.

Could it be that we’ve been holding the magnifying glass at the wrong angle this whole time? It may not be home ownership that triggers a right shift. On the contrary, does being already conservative encourage you to own a house?

The qualities traditionally associated with conservatism—personal and financial responsibility, family values, social order—provide fertile ground for the confidence needed to engage more than a quarter of a century of your life mortgage payments. It follows a concern for house prices, extensions and events in your neighborhood.

When Margaret Thatcher started selling cut-price council housing, those who already identified as conservatives were more likely to buy, according to a 2007 study by Williams, Sewel and Twine. Labor voters were more hesitant, even though it was the deal of the century. But did he ensure Thatcher’s electoral success? Well, only in a roundabout way. The study also found that Labor voters switched, but not to the Conservatives. They jumped on the Liberal/SDP ship.

When people take the leap to homeownership, they may not suddenly don the Conservative Party rosettes. But they tend to be more politically engaged. They are standing in local elections and voicing their concerns about local issues, for example voicing objections to the proposed new road estate – the very one the Tories have promised in their bid to ease the housing crisis.

Amid the vote rush, one group is being overlooked: tenants who will continue to rent. This is no longer the 19th century, where only the propertied classes had a say

This first home is often closely followed by a stream of milestones: children, family doctors, afternoons spent at local playgrounds, and choosing a school – life milestones over the which a person can become more dependent on a benevolent government. Opposition leader Keir Starmer has said Labor is the real party of the owners, which may be a more natural alignment than previously thought.

There are a multitude of variables at play in what affects how people vote and how people live. Yet amid the vote rush, one group is visibly overlooked: tenants who will continue to rent. Some of them even vote too – this is no longer the 19th century, when only the propertied classes had a say.

Political parties often have difficulty reaching tenants. While 94% of owners are registered on the electoral lists, only 63% of tenants are on the lists, according to the Electoral Commission. Missing Millennials reports that a third of people in their 30s and 40s rent privately.

There are very good reasons for the Conservatives to encourage them to keep renting. Those without families are mobile and can adapt to labor markets. By nature, tenants are favorable to the construction of new housing; after all, more housing supply means lower rents. And, since they’re less likely to already be Conservative voters — or even voters at all — there’s a bigger pool to convert.

There are strong arguments for building more homes, but enticing buyers to turn into conservative voters isn’t one of them. Home ownership in England is now at 64%. Let’s not forget that the peak for homeownership was 71% in 2003, in the midst of more than a decade of Labor rule.

Follow Joy on Twitter @joy_lo_dico

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