Housing in the United Kingdom

Housing in the United Kingdom ranks in the top half of EU countries. However the increasing cost of housing, is leading many to claim there is a "housing crisis". Most though still find the UK a desirable place to live. London is resident to the highest number of ultra high net worth individuals in the world. For some this is a cause for concern as it is leading to gentrification. The average house costs £290,000 to buy (September, 2015), has 2.8 bedrooms, and is semi-detached. Housing represents the largest non-financial asset in the UK with a net value of £5.1 trillion (2014).

The very rapid growth in population in the 19th century in the cities included the new industrial and manufacturing cities, as well as service centers such as Edinburgh and London. The critical factor was financing, which was handled by building societies that dealt directly with large contracting firms. Private renting from housing landlords was the dominant tenure. P. Kemp says this was usually of advantage to tenants. 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.

The rapid expansion of housing was a major success story of the interwar years, 1919-1939, standing in sharp contrast to the United States, where new housing construction practically collapsed after 1929. The total housing stock in England and Wales was 7.6 million in 1911; 8.0 million in 1921; 9.4 million in 1931; and 11.3 million in 1939.

The private sector rental market provided 90 percent of the housing before the war. Now came under heavy pressure, regarding rent controls, and the inability of owners to evict tenants, except for nonpayment of rent. The tenants had a friend in Prime Minister Lloyd George, and especially in the increasingly powerful Labour Party. The private rental sector went into a prolonged decline and never recovered; by 1938, it covered only 58 percent Of the housing stock.

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 90 years. It recommended housing in short terraces, spaced at 70 feet (21 m) at a density of 12 to the acre. With the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1919 Prime Minister David Lloyd George set up a system of government housing that followed his 1918 campaign promises of "homes fit for heroes." Called the "Addison Act," it required local authorities to survey their housing needs, and start building houses to replace slums. The treasury subsidized the low rents. The immediate impact was the prevalence of the three-bedroom house, with kitchen, bath, parlor, electric lighting, and gas cooking, often built as subsidized council housing. Major cities such as London and Birmingham built large-scale housing estates – one in Birmingham had a population of 30,000. The houses were built in blocks of two or four Using brick or stucco, with two stories. They were set back from curving streets; each had a long garden strip. Shopping centers, churches and pubs sprang up nearby. Eventually The city would provide a community hall, schools, and a public library. The residents typically were the upper fifth stratum of the working class. The largest of these two communities was Becontree in the outer suburbs of London, where construction began in 1921 and by 1932 there were 22,000 houses holding 103,000 residents. Slum clearance now moved from being a public health issue, to a matter of town planning.

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Wikipedia