Housing in the United Kingdom
Housing in the United Kingdom represents the largest non-financial asset class in the UK; its overall net value passed the £8 trillion mark in 2023.
[13] Rapid population growth took place in the nineteenth century, particularly terraces in cities with the widespread adoption of mass-produced bricks.
People moved in so rapidly that there was not enough capital to build adequate housing for everyone, so low-income newcomers squeezed into increasingly overcrowded slums.
Clean water, sanitation, and public health facilities were inadequate; the death rate was high, especially infant mortality, and tuberculosis among young adults.
[17][18][19] Despite this, house prices actually fell for seventy years from the 1840s due to the expansion of the railway network which made it attractive to build on land that had previously been very distant from urban centres.
This growth was in stark contrast to the United States, where the construction of new housing practically collapsed after 1929[citation needed], and France, where strict rent controls imposed in 1914 meant the housing stock expanded only from 9.5 million that year to 9.75 million by 1939, of which nearly a third were declared unfit for human habitation.
The tenants had a friend in Liberal Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, and especially in the increasingly powerful Labour Party.
[25] A decisive change in policy was marked by the Tudor Walters Report of 1918; it set the standards for council house design and location for the next ninety years.
[30] Liberal MP Tudor Walters was inspired by the garden city movement, calling for spacious low-density developments and semi-detached houses built to a high construction standard.
Local politicians consulted with them and in response put more emphasis on such amenities as communal laundromats, extra bedrooms, indoor lavatories, running hot water, separate parlours to demonstrate their respectability, and practical vegetable gardens rather than manicured yards.
Many dreams were shattered as local authorities had to renege on promises they could not fulfill due to undue haste, impossible national deadlines, debilitating bureaucracy, lack of lumber, rising costs, and the unaffordability of rents by the rural poor.
There were attempts at compromise by developing new solutions to urban living, focused especially on slum clearance and redevelopment schemes.
Starting in the 1920s favourable tax policies encouraged substantial investment in the societies, creating huge reserves for lending.
Air raids had destroyed half a million housing units; repairs and maintenance on undamaged homes had been postponed.
When the Conservative Party returned to power in 1951, they made housing a high priority and oversaw 2,500,000 new units, two-thirds of them through local councils.
[43] According to a 2018 study in the Economic History Review, the ‘stop-go’ macroeconomic policy framework adopted by the Treasury and the Bank of England from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s restricted housebuilding during the period.
There was also widespread construction of purpose-built apartment blocks including Wembley Park and Stratford in London, Salford Quays and Beetham Tower in Manchester.
[49] The Labour government suspected that there might be supply-side problems in the construction sector, and in 2006 commissioned the Callcutt Review of House Building Delivery,[52] which was published in 2007.
The Callcutt report noted the failure of the home building industry to increase the supply in response to price signals.
[54] According to the Centre for Ageing Better 21% of homes in the UK were built before 1919, 38% before 1946, and only 7% after 2000, making the British housing stock older than any European Union countries.
[55] Local planning authorities are required to continuously maintain sufficient land to meet housing needs for five years.
[62] The most expensive street in the UK is Kensington Palace Gardens, London, where the average price of a home is approximately £42 million.
Council Tax is paid by the occupier of the home unless it is a house in multiple occupation (HMO) when the landlord is liable.
Council environmental health officers inspected dwellings in a borough and those which failed to meet standards were compulsorily purchased for a nominal sum and demolished.
This is especially true in London, where due to the housing crisis, landlords can let a property in poor condition, and consequently improving the energy efficiency of a dwelling is not a priority for buy to let investors.
[93] This, it is believed, is mainly due to financial reasons, such as the owner being unable to sell the house or raise enough money to renovate the property.
[96] One explanation for this housing transactions have picked up since the financial crisis, and because of government efforts to reduce the number of empty homes.
Government statistics show that long-term empty homes are generally concentrated post-industrial areas, in the North of England and in seaside towns, where property prices are generally lower, with the lowest percentage in London, which had 20,795 long-term empty properties, with the highest in Barrow-in Furness, Burley and Blackburn.
[98] Research by Islington Council revealed that nearly a third of new dwellings built did not have anyone on the electoral register after six years, although this may exclude students and foreign tenants.
[99] The Observer reported on what has been termed 'lights out London' .. 'where absentee owners push up property prices without contributing to the local economy'.
