A MUM is pinning all her hopes on buying her first home on her son becoming a professional footballer.
Terri-Anne Hamer, 38, says she is barely able to make it to the end of the month and is fearful she may never get on the property ladder.
Despite mortgage rate cuts making the path to owning a home more realistic, the single mum-of-three, from Leeds, admitted she is waiting on a miracle to be given the keys to her own gaff.
“I’m in a situation where it’s just about getting through each month,” she told The i.
“A mortgage isn’t even in my mindset right now.
“It’s something I’d like to have, but I don’t think it’s ever going to be achievable for me, no matter how hard I work.
“The only way I can see myself ever affording a home is if I have a lottery win.
“Or if my 14-year-old son [Kemon] achieves his dream of getting signed up for Liverpool as a footballer.
“He always tells me: ‘When I’m older and get signed up as a footballer, I’m going to buy you a house. Even if I don’t get signed up, I’m going to look after you’.”
Teri-Anne, who is also mum to 11-year-old Amayah and AJ, eight, was taken away from her drug and alcohol-addicted parents and placed into care from an early age.
And despite nabbing a diploma in Youth and Community Studies and a masters in Criminology, she is still struggling to avoid eviction at the £700-per-month housing association property she rents.
“I’ve worked hard as a single mum and as a care leaver to overcome the odds. But even though I now have a masters and a BA behind me, I am just making ends meet,” she said.
“I can only work part-time as I have three children and I am also looking after another child who I took on after my mum passed away a couple of years ago.
“I am investing in my children and they are already reaching things I couldn’t have dreamed of at their age.
“They are living their dream and I am so proud. They are already beating the odds.
“Even though I might never be able to own a house or have a mortgage, I pray they will do it and that their generation will get to do what the rest of my family never did.”
Academy director Alex Inglethorpe has lifted the lid on the restrictions he has implemented at the club.
Player wages are restricted to a £50,000-a-year cap under the regulations.
Meanwhile, his “car clause” limits the engine sizes of player vehicles to 1.3 litres.
Finally, players must hand their phones in at 8.30am when they arrive at the academy and are not given them back until they leave for the day.
Explaining the rules, Inglethorpe told Jamie Carragher for the Telegraph: “It is a safety thing as much as anything.
“I don’t want boys who have just passed their test with these big chunks of metal, but I was also fed up seeing a car park full of Range Rovers.
“If anyone turns up with one of them, they are parking it next door.
“We have a pay structure which is fairly old-fashioned. We give them jobs to do. We tell them to hand their phone over at 8.30am and give them back before they go home.
“You have been a senior player. You know how it is when a young player comes into the dressing room. You want respect for the pathway.
“They have to earn what comes their way first. All the other stuff is fine later. To get there you have to do it on the pitch.”
It comes after the Bank of England has opted to hold interest rates on Thursday after cutting them for the first time since 2020 last month.
At the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) meeting, ratesetters at the BoE held the base rate at 5%.
The BoE raises or lowers its base rate, which dictates what interest rates are charged to banks, in order to control inflation.
By raising it, it is supposed to make the cost of borrowing more expensive and control spending, therefore driving down inflation.
The BoE started raising its base rate in December 2021 as the UK economy emerged from the coronavirus pandemic.
A succession of rate rises followed as the bank looked to slow rampant inflation brought on partly by soaring wholesale gas and electricity prices.
It has seen mortgage rates go up for millions of households – adding thousands of pounds to some bills.
But the upturn in the base rate has also seen rates on savings accounts pushed up.
With inflation slowing, economists are predicting the BoE will bring interest rates down next year.
The International Monetary Fund also previously predicted that the BoE will cut its base rate to 3.5% by 2025.
