General election 2024: The town where house prices are 17 times earnings

Jess Distill, who works in a cafe, is 37 and has lived her whole life – except for university – in St Albans.

Her living situation is, she says, “rather unusual”.

Her parents “left home before we did”, she says, describing how they bought a canal boat in retirement leaving the children with the family home.

When the pandemic arrived, however, her parents returned home and Ms Distill has now found herself living not only with her parents but with her sister and brother-in-law too.

“It has its pros and cons,” she says. “It is probably quite unusual for somebody my age to be living at home with their parents – but it is very nice for me financially.

“I live rent-free,” she says. “I would love to have my own place just to have that little extra space and freedom.

“But I work part-time on minimum wage so there’s no way I’m putting down a deposit on a place at the moment.”

She says she is not alone in her friendship group to have moved back home with parents because of the cost of housing.

“I feel we are being told as a generation to choose between finding and making that money to buy a house and living and enjoying your life,” she says.