01 May Housing: The Great British Dilemma
As the country’s population grows – and the amount of proposed social or affordable housing developments become scarce – Great Britain’s housing issues are increasingly being dubbed as a crisis. But what are the facts? Asks Ash Houghton.
As the general election looms, amongst all of the buzz words, rhetoric and canvassing, there is one topic on the lips of every prospective voter and politician: housing. Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, recently said that problems with housing are the “biggest risk” to the UK economy.
A particularly contentious area is that of social housing. According to the Home Builders Foundation (HBF), social housing waiting lists have almost doubled in the last 10 years to 1.85 million households, with around 5 million people currently waiting for a home.
A tale of two sides, on the one hand, the country is facing a severe lack of housing and an increasing population. However, this is an issue housing developers would claim they’re helping to fix by providing supply to the demand. This, in fairness, is considered a logical economic approach.
However, due to mid to high-range properties being most lucrative for developers, this has left vast swathes of housing developments pricing out many local communities and ultimately not being replaced with truly affordable housing.
Currently, affordable housing is classified as anything up to 80 percent of the property’s market value. This being the case, as house prices continue to boom in the country’s major cities – in some places as much as a 40% increase in the space of five years – the figure of 80 percent isn’t so affordable.
First time homeowner Jesse Collins expresses the hardships of attempting to own his own home:
“It took me ten years to save for a deposit and I still wasn’t able to afford a home in London,” he explains. “It wasn’t until the unfortunate loss of a family member that I was able to get the funds, and that shouldn’t be how it works. It’s a shame that people don’t aspire to own their own homes anymore, it’s just not realistic for the majority of people.”
Weighing in on the debate, Ed Miliband recently upped his offer on housebuilding by saying a Labour government will “start construction on 1m new homes by 2020” – an increase on the party’s pledge last year to build 200,000 home a year by 2020.
On top of this generous pledge, the Labour leader also promised that instead of “affordable homes” being classed as anything up to 80% of market rent that (as previously noted), under his leadership, rents would be linked to average wages or house prices.
Now, this notion of heavy regulation, although easily digestible and seemingly positive, is frowned upon by leading economists — whom ultimately argue that too much government involvement skews the market and hinders economic growth in the long run.
Despite this, many critics argue that — without immediate intervention — the scale of the issue could escalate rapidly. We speak to Sharon Giles, head of communications at housing and homelessness charity Shelter, on the the impact of the current housing situation:
“We are dealing with an unprecedented scale of homelessness and displacement,” she explains. “This is going on right now, on our streets, and, unfortunately, our government and Westminster are neglecting the issue. The government needs to take immediate action in regards to legislation to help safeguard some of society’s most vulnerable individuals before it really is too late. This should not be happening in Britain in 2015.”
Beyond government intervention, recent successes by the likes of the ‘New Era Mums’ from the New Era housing estate in East London – which was originally scheduled to be purchased and subsequently demolished by foreign investors, leaving the residents homeless – has given campaigners hope that the battle between private investors and social tenants can indeed be won.
Following the news of US investors Westbrook Partners attempting to purchase the estate for private development opportunities, the local residents of the New Era estate took to the streets to organise their fellow residents and fight back.
With the help of comedian-turned-activist Russell Brand, the residents were able to raise awareness of the issue and subsequently dissuaded the investors from purchasing the site through relentless campaigning and involvement with the media. Ultimately, the land was sold to the Dolphin Square Charitable Foundation, which aims to commit to affordable rents for low to middle income Londoners.
The below video piece steps on to the frontline of Britain’s housing campaigning, with a specific focus on the Aylesbury and Sweets Way estates – both of which are becoming a battle ground between developers and protestors.
Speaking to London SE1 earlier this year, Labour councillor for Southwark (where major regeneration developments are happening right now, as seen above), Peter John attempted to highlight the positive impacts of regeneration.
“We have to make sure that doesn’t just mean new buildings with new people,” he explains, “but new buildings with Southwark residents benefiting from the jobs and opportunities that come from that.”
But what about the residents? We speak to Dean Porter, a resident of the Aylesbury Estate to gain an insight in to what life is like on the estate following the news of its proposed demolition, as well as his thoughts on the wider issues that are having an impact on his local community.
Housing developers Lend Lease and St. Modwen were both contacted while writing this feature, but were unfortunately not available for comment at this time.
