The reconstruction of Britain after the Second World War provided an opportunity to deal with the housing problems of the nation. It was initially a promising effort. More than a million homes were built between 1945 and 1951, 80 per cent of them being council homes, which were then let out on subsidised rents.
Unfortunately, a housing crisis of immense proportions has subsequently developed. Many ex-council homes have fallen into the hands of people who are not “working class” and several landlords have built up portfolios of such homes to generate private rental income. These private rents are unaffordable for the people most likely to require this form of housing, and has contributed to a social cleansing and “gentrification” of entire neighbourhoods.
In Britain, housing is frequently treated as a speculative asset. Homes are not merely places to live in and cherish. Wealth has been created merely through the acquisition, development and resale or renting out of property. Deregulation has encouraged overseas investors to enter the British property market, often as absentee landlords of vacant properties.
Supply of new housing has not been responsive to actual demand. New builds are frequently luxury developments, even though most local authorities specify that 30 per cent of all new homes in a development should be “affordable.” This has lead to an over-supply of overpriced flats and houses, which then often lie unoccupied as the upper end of the market becomes saturated. .
The landscape of 21st century housing in Britain has become dominated by private housing, gated communities, and high-end, high-rise properties. Young people are forced to live in their parents’ homes even well into their thirties, and homelessness has become a significant problem in the world’s fifth largest economy.
Social housing in Britain originated from the efforts of reformers in Victorian London and other cities. Early housing for the working classes was provided by the co-operative movement and by philanthropists, most prominent among whom were people like Edward Cecil Guinness, George Peabody and Joseph Rowntree. No state funding was given for these housing developments. Successive parliamentary acts, starting with the Housing for the Working Classes Act 1890 and including the Housing and Town Planning Act 1919 provided an impetus for the expansion of social housing.
From the 1890s onwards, local authorities came to the fore as builders of social housing. During the 1930s, there was a massive increase in council housing, only to be halted by the Second World War. Following the war, there was a major shortage of housing, partly as the result of damage caused by bombing. Initial initiatives included the construction of temporary pre-fabricated bungalows and pre-cast reinforced concrete homes, alongside slum clearance and the development of New Towns.
The rot set in with the poorly constructed and low-quality pre-fabricated inner-city tower blocks of the late 1960s. New “sink estates” resulted, complete with forbidding concrete walkways and “streets in the sky.” Amenities and facilities were frequently lacking, and little emphasis was given to maintenance of the estates. Urban blight set in, and vandalism, crime and substance misuse created a new and alienated generation of younger people. The effects of these poorly designed attempts at social engineering persist to the day, even after most of the original tower blocks have been pulled down.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had a vision of an upwardly mobile society, in which a new propertied class owned their own homes. The Right-to-Buy scheme was established by the Housing Act 1980 and gave council tenants the right to buy their houses and flats at generously discounted prices. Over the period from 1980 to 1998, the sale of council homes delivered £24 billion in capital receipts to local authorities. Almost none of these profits were reinvested into the building of new homes.
The current shortage of social housing, as provided by local councils and housing associations, demonstrates the failure of successive governments to plan for the future. Current targets for new home building are not being met by around a half of local authorities in England, as of 2018. We can expect a continued increase in social deprivation and inequality unless the system is adequately resourced. This seems unlikely in the near future, given the substantial backlogs in housing.
Ashis Banerjee (homeowner)