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Housing in Britain: Rooms for improvement
英國的住房問題：進步空間
How to solve Britain's housing mess?
如何解決英國的住房危機？
On every side, Britain's politicians are grappling with problems of immense scale and nightmarish complexity.
在各個方面，英國政客都在與大規模且噩夢般錯綜復雜的問題斗爭。
How to manage the departure from the European Union?
如何解決脫歐帶來的影響？
How to help a crumbling health service cope with an ageing, weakening population?
如何幫助一個搖搖欲墜的公共醫療服務應對人口日益老齡化且日益衰弱的情況？
How to deal with persistent regional deprivation?
如何應對持續的地域性貧困？
Yet one national scourge that holds back the economy and poisons politics is readily solvable—politicians just need to be brave enough to act.
然而一個國家的禍害比如阻礙經濟和政治影響是容易解決的，政客們只需要足夠勇敢的行為。
That scourge is the cost of housing.
這個災禍是住房的成本。
The ratio of median house prices to earnings in England hit 7.7 in 2016, its highest recorded level.
2016年，英國平均房價與收入的比率達到了7.7，創歷史最高水平。
In the past four decades house prices have grown by more in Britain than in any other G7 country.
在過去的四十年，英國的房價已經上漲得比其它G7國家還要多。
Home ownership has been falling for more than a decade, after rising for most of the past century.
在過去大半個世紀上漲之后，住房自有率已經連續十年下跌。
In London housing is outlandishly dear: before the Brexit vote sent the pound tumbling, it was the priciest city in the world for renters.
在倫敦，住房是出奇的昂貴：在英國退歐公投之前，英鎊暴跌，倫敦是世界上租房價格最高的城市。
The cost of housing has knock-on effects across the economy.
住房成本對整個經濟產生了連鎖反應。
As people are forced out to the suburbs, cities become less dynamic.
當人們被迫搬到郊區時，城市變得不那么有活力了。
Workers waste time on marathon, energy-sapping commutes.
工人們把時間浪費在馬拉松式、消耗能量的通勤上。
People from the regions cannot afford to move to cities where they might find work.
郊區的人們支付不起搬到他們可能找到工作的城區的費用。
Businesses cannot clear land to build.
企業不能清理土地用以建設。
It is perhaps no coincidence that Britain's growing housing mess has coincided with stagnant productivity.
英國日益增長的住房市場混亂與生產力停滯相吻合，這也許不是巧合。
All this has fostered a growing sense of inequity.
所有這些都滋生了一種日益增長的不平等感。
Britons over the age of 65, a fifth of the population, own over 40% of the housing wealth held by owner-occupiers.
年齡超過65歲的英國人占人口的五分之一，他們以業主占有的方式擁有40%的房屋財產。
Youngsters with rich parents can buy their first house thanks to the “Bank of Mum and Dad”.
有富有父母的年輕人可以買他們的第一套房，多虧了“爸媽的銀行”。
Everyone else must resign themselves to renting small properties for life, or to continuing to pay off their mortgage long after retirement.
其他的人則必須放棄自己的意愿，終身租著小房子，或者在退休很久后繼續償還貸款。
譯文來源考研英語時事閱讀
