London's housing crisis is existential - but we fixed it before, we can do it again
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we → fix → it
It is easy to despair over London’s housing crisis.
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It → despair → crisis
The city is building fewer homes than it has for decades, a trend which looks set to get worse.
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which → build → trend
The average rent of a two-bedroom home is more than £2,200 per month and even renting a single room can cost well over £1,000 a month.
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renting → rent → 1,000
First-time buyers now need to find a £134,000 deposit — well beyond
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buyers → need → deposit
be saved by forgoing takeaway coffees (especially if you bear that rent figure in mind)
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you → save → mind
Almost 75,000 families are living in temporary accommodation, an increase of more than 100 per cent since the start of the 2010s and the highest number in living memory.
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families → live → memory
And this summer brought a brutal reminder of the challenge climate change is bringing as Londoners sweltered in hard-to-cool homes.
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Londoners → bring → homes
Faced with doom across almost every level of housing it seems reasonable to feel nothing but pessimism.
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it → face → pessimism
There is no clear route out of the spiralling housing crisis and this has existential consequences for the city.
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this → be → city
Already many ordinary people are finding they can’t afford to rent more than a single room in a house share.
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they → find → share
Many essential workers, including teachers, nurses, retail and transport, have migrated out of the capital to more affordable areas.
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workers → include → areas
Families are fleeing and the birthrate is plummeting.
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birthrate → flee → ?
But there remains hope that we could take a different route.
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we → remain → route
At the start of this decade, London councils, with support from the Mayor and new funding rules, were embarking on the biggest programme of council house building since the 1970s, often well-designed, architecturally award-winning, family-sized housing.
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councils → embark → 1970s
Many were forced to scale down or revert their plans as the fallout of Covid and Russia’s war with Ukraine hit the economy and the costs of borrowing and building rocketed.
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costs → force → borrowing
New funding committed by Labour will not cover the full need — London has £3.3bn until 2030 when City Hall estimates it needs £4.9bn a year — but it is a move in the right direction.
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it → commit → direction
If the goal to build tens of thousands of new social homes in London is achieved in the next few years, that means tens of thousands of families can move out of temporary accommodation and insecure and devastatingly pricey private rentals and put down roots in the capital.
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thousands → build → capital
The main reason private housebuilding has stalled in London is that demand has plummeted — not because young people don’t want somewhere to live, but because they simply can’t afford it.
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they → stall → it
International investors — the other major market for London new builds — have also turned their attentions elsewhere.
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investors → turn → attentions
Property developers present that as a crisis, but it is also an opportunity.
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it → present → crisis
In the 2010s London’s property market was red hot but it did nothing to solve the housing issues.
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it → do → issues
In that same period rents and prices soared, flats were often sold off-plan and flipped before being left empty on completion, and many buildings turned out to be riddled with quality issues.
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buildings → soar → issues
If that model is dying, might something better replace it?
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something → die → it
There are examples in cities the world over of models that have been squeezed out of London by speculative housebuilding, such as community land trust models, which are popular in Zurich and Scandinavia.
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which → be → Zurich
“The main reason private housebuilding has stalled in London is that demand has plummeted — not because young people don’t want somewhere to live, but because they simply can’t afford it.”
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they → stall → it
A younger generation of housing activists have shown their capacity to force through change.
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generation → show → change
For the first time since the late 1980s, London’s renters have tenancy security longer than six months thanks to the Renters’ Rights Act, after a youth-led campaign eventually forced a cross-party consensus on ending no fault eviction.
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campaign → have → eviction
Rent control — which can work when carefully introduced — is their next target.
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which → work → ?
The rise of the renters
London’s politicians will have to be alive to this.
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politicians → have → this
The capital is one of the only places where renters make up an electorally significant voting bloc, and politicians will not be able to win here without their support.
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politicians → make → support
And one of the major public policy successes of recent years has been climate-related — the move towards electric cars and public transport has already made our air cleaner.
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air → relate → cars
We need more of this — water gardens and permeable surfaces to protect against flooding; greenery and shading to offer respite from summer’s deadly heat.
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We → need → heat
With the right leadership, London could become more affordable and greener by the middle of the century but it depends on the choices we make now.
uncertain
we → become → choices
Chancellor John Healey has a long interest in housing.
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Healey → have → housing
In the early 2010s, as a backbencher, he helped establish a political campaign to call for more social housing when the rest of the Labour Party was less interested.
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rest → help → Party
In his Budget this month he needs to show the same ambition for new social housing.
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he → need → housing
Doing so would set London on a path to a better future.
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Doing → do → future
Read More
Change can come quickly.
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Change → read → More
My dad was born in 1944, when London was still being cratered by V2 bombs and most working-class people lived in slums.
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people → bear → slums
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
