A recent tabloid headline caught my eye: “Joy for millions,” it said.

Expecting to find news of a cure for cancer or an end to third-world poverty, I was disappointed and somewhat staggered to learn that the “joy” referred to was, in fact, house prices going up.

We have a massive problem with housing in this country, which is having a serious effect on families and family life.

Due to the hugely over-inflated cost of housing and private rents, the average age of a person taking out a mortgage is 41 – yes, 41.

This means many sons and daughters, and possibly their partners, are having to live with their parents well into their 30s – a situation that can be difficult, demeaning and destructive for family life.

This has been brought about by a “perfect storm” in the housing market made up of artificially sustained house prices and a huge rise in buy-to-let landlords who are keen to see a return on their “investment”.

All of this was fuelled by the easy credit boom a few years back and, although the boom was followed by a bust and the credit crunch, we have not yet seen a re-adjustment in the market with lower rents and house prices.

This is partly due to Bank of England subsidies for banks still offering buy-to-let mortgages as well as the Government’s Help To Sell scheme, which is only adding to house price inflation for those who can actually get a mortgage.

We now have a very high and dangerous earnings-to-mortgage ratio for new homeowners in this country, which will inevitably lead to the tragedy of repossession for many when interest rates eventually go up. What this also means is that millions of pounds of spending power is being sucked out of local economies through sky-high rents and huge mortgage repayments.

The human cost is more difficult to quantify but we all need somewhere to live. Large numbers of people, however, will continue to struggle to find appropriate housing or accommodation until they are almost middle-aged.

This cannot be right in a modern, wealthy country such as ours.

Peter Atkinson, Wolseley Road, Portslade