Britain is Still Short of Houses
For decades after the Second World War, house building steadily produced around 300,000 houses per year. House prices rose and fell with each boom and bust of the economy, but overall gradually rose.
Social housing, in the form of council houses and flats, accounted for around half of the number homes per year being built. One of the first “privatisation” moves by the Thatcher government was the introduction of the Housing Act 1980.
This gave tenants of council houses the right to buy their homes. It gave central government a huge source of revenue, but local councils virtually stopped all social building.
The number of houses being built by the private sector could only amount to around half of the amount Continue reading “Short of Houses – Limited UK Supply”