Rents in some places in London have risen 20% in the last year, while wages for under-30s have fallen by 6-10% over a decade. Photograph: Andrew Parker/Alamy

 

‘Suicide is not a logical response to debt, but fear is. Fear of failure, fear of never making the leap to adulthood successfully. Fear like that can be overwhelming. I have seen it destroy young lives. For every young person like Toby Thorn who takes their own life in despair – nearly 2,000 every year and rising – there will be tens of thousands more who fall into anxious depression, who hurt their bodies, who fail to thrive.’

‘Never knowing when or if you’ll ever have a roof over your head, or enough money at the end of a precarious working week to buy decent food. That’s the reality of life for millions of people in Britain today, sapping our energy and sucking away our youth, and it’s fortunate for all of us that there are some are still finding the strength to organise.’

‘At least 75,000 young people are going to be homeless this Christmas – and those numbers have soared, according to housing charities and local councils. I’m sorry to bring you all down when we should be celebrating the royal baby, but right now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge may be among the very few young people who can afford to build a future and a family in Britain. For the rest of us, it’s going to be a cold, hard, angry winter.’

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