and you are looking in for every week and month that goes by, the dream of homeownership recedes further into the distance. the average age of first time buyers has been rising continuously. the proportion of young people who can afford to buy their own home has been falling. between 2005 2016, the proportion of 2534 year olds that owned their own home fell by 20%, whereas in most other countries, it has been rising. it is true that we still have higher rates of overall homeownership just ahead of france and just ahead of germany. and it is true that we are building more as fast as we can after a sustained decline in home ownership rates in the labour government, which is now starting to go back up thanks to our support forfirst time starting to go back up thanks to our support for first time buyers and also building more homes. last year, there were 400,001st time buyers of property which was a 20 year high. 400,000 property which was a 20 year high. 400,000 first time
a mutual security pact with sweden, pledging support should the military come under attack. more could be done to help you with long term chronic pain, specialists say, is a bbc survey suggests a quarter of uk adults live with the condition. doesn t matter how hard i tried, or how much i wait or how much i pray, it most likely isn t going to change. downing street says its target of building 300,000 new homes in england per year still stands after the housing secretary michael gove has said the government was no longer trying to meet it. mr gove said ministers were now focusing on building homes people can be proud of and said that people in england would be given the right to vote on proposed property extensions in their neighbourhood as part of its new levelling up and regeneration bill which has been introduced in parliament today after yesterday s queens speech. labour has said the queen s speech didn t contain enough measures to help people with the rising cost of living
music. and, we go behind the scenes in turin for the eurovision song contest, where ukraine is tipped to win on saturday. and coming up on the bbc news channel. he s one of the world s most sought after talents, but is erling haaland on his way to the premier league? good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. prince charles has unveiled the government s plans for legislation for the year ahead, at the state opening of parliament. it was the first time in nearly 60 years that the queen didn t deliver the speech, after she decided not to attend because of what buckingham palace described as mobility problems. the speech contained 38 bills and draft bills and outlined the government s plan to tackle the cost of living crisis and regional inequalities. it included a new levelling up and regeneration bill, containing powers to force landlords in england to let out empty shops, in a bid to rejuvenate high streets. a brexit freedoms bill, to give ministers new powers to over