Yesterdays speech by David Cameron was full of very strange hyperbole. As if he had not learnt from the disastrous politicisation of the ‘Big Society’ concept, Dave has now attempted to appropriate ‘Hope’ on behalf of his Party. At least the Big Society was not a phrase that was in common usage or owned by anyone else, even if the concept behind it already belonged to all of us. Most of us use the word Hope on a daily basis, it is one of those rather intangible qualities that certainly cannot be generated by any political party or indeed all of them put together. However once those analysing the speech have strained out the nonsense of patronising phrases such as ‘building a land of hope and opportunity’ the messages that are left behind may well create despair for all of us, including some families in Chipping Norton! Even on a political level it is hard to understand how useful the speech will be to the party. The current benefit changes were being seen as problems by many of us long before they took effect. David Cameron is going to attempt to win the next election on a policy of ‘Earning or Learning’ for all adults until their 25th Birthday. This is a policy which raises many concerns and if implemented will create enormous demand for family mediation charities and social services, possibly extending to the Police!

Leaving home at 18 is not a reality for all of us, but it is nevertheless a common expectation for teenagers and their parents. Moving out from the family home depends on the availability of affordable housing, a phrase like Hope that we are all familiar with, but which is easier to name than to understand. Planners usually suggest that a home is affordable if it is available for sale or rent at a cost that is a proportion of the open market rates. This means that if a lack of housing pushes up open market values, then ‘affordable housing’ rates will also increase. However these changes take no account of what people on low incomes can actually afford. Inevitably once market prices are driven too high, the demand for such property will eventually be sated and so the costs will stabilise or possibly even drop. Meanwhile our 18-25 year olds in education or on low incomes who are now to be denied any state help with housing costs will become observers rather than participants in this financial market. This will not create Hopeful people!

For those of us who are fortunate enough to have a family of our own, few of us can anticipate with any great precision how large these families will become. Our housing is often chosen on the basis of what we can afford, for a home that will be comfortable for us and any young children we may hope to include in our family. As these children grow up their need for space and an environment they can help to shape also increases. The needs of a toddler in this regard will usually be a great deal less than those of a teenager. A young adult will have even greater need for space and freedom from their family. It is this process that actually helps to create society at large. David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson are no longer running around Oxford City Centre, breaking windows and damaging restaurants. Whilst most of us learn our life lessons in a manner that is a great deal less destructive than the members of the Bullingdon Club, there is a need for all of us to cope with the transition from our late teenage years to when we are able to fully embrace adulthood. Whilst Earning or Learning (without state support) for 18-25 year olds is a good phrase to bandy around a conference hall of people who are almost all over 25 and some of whom are able to provide homes for their children from the family trust fund, when people start to do the calculations for the rest of us it will very quickly become a toxic concept for many of the electors in 2015. Just as Ed Miliband has rowed back from his promise to cap fuel costs for 2 years, let us hope David Cameron has the sense to retract his Earning or Learning promise!