Short-termism drags us back to the 1900s.

We need our own home. Sadly, we're unable to buy one simply because of our age: we're the mid-30s of the mid 2010s.

We just missed out on being in the slightly older bracket of late 30s-early 40s. If we were a few years older, we'd have been ok: we'd have bought a long-term home just before the crash. But we bought a flat; a reasonably-priced one at that.

The area has improved since we bought it. There's new employment locally, new public transport and so many nice shops and cafe bars that BBC Breakfast can be there about once a week, asking the contented, cultured, middle-class residents the lifestyle question of the day without anyone realising it's the same small area every time. So why can't we sell it?

Whilst we're trying to find a buyer for our flat, houses are getting further and further out of reach, even though we're looking at areas that are considerably more affordable than the affluent, sought-after area we live in now. The economic crash robbed us of the income that had enabled us to get on the property ladder and we've only just now caught up to where we were 7 or 8 years ago. But despite all of the local improvements (and some improvements to the flat itself), our flat has been on the market for four months and nobody is willing to pay the amount we need to raise enough deposit to buy a house. And the longer it takes, the more expensive houses get.

Short-termism is an every-parliament problem. Why would a government invest in the future so that the next reaps the rewards? And can you imagine a government minister, or the media for that matter, letting a member of the shadow cabinet claim credit for an improving economy, or improving Schools, or an easing of the housing crisis? The opposition don't have a voice. And even if they did, the majority of the electorate wouldn't be listening and when they're fine with how things are, they either don't vote, or vote for the status quo. So no party in power would ever make short-term losses, and in doing so risk being seen as a failure, and let their successors claim the credit.

But this government have got short-termism in their blood; it's like an addiction. Scrapping green levies that were intended to pay for greener and cleaner energy in the future to bring bills down now. Cutting income tax and cutting spending on infrastructure that will mean more critical need and higher costs at a later date. Cutting benefits and care for people who need it now and ignoring the longer term costs of doing so.

This government is only too happy to let house prices spiral up and up and up again, boosting the economy in the short term, gambling that in the next parliament, the fall-out won't be their problem. What is happening now is putting people with quite healthy incomes in situations similar to how quite low income families would have been 100 years ago. We're faced with cramming our future into a scruffy two-up two-down with only a yard for any children we might have to play in. And even a property like that would be pushing the limits of our finances.

We should be able to afford a family home. But many people like us are putting off having children because we just can't.