London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 10, 2025

The housing market may be booming for a fortunate few, but the have-nots of Britain are still being left way behind

The housing market may be booming for a fortunate few, but the have-nots of Britain are still being left way behind

High earners and those with wealthy parents, aided and abetted by government schemes only designed to make the economy ‘look’ good, are forcing up house prices for the rest. After Covid, housing is the next crisis on the horizon.

Today I received an email from one of the UK’s leading estate agents for high value properties. I like to know what they are all up to, so I subscribe to all of their sites. On opening the message titled ‘The Outlook is Sunny’ I was informed of how positive the housing market is with strong levels of demand, 52% higher than this time in 2019, and told sellers should really take advantage of this good news.

I’m one of the millions who privately rent and, as a middle-aged single woman, there is no chance of me ever getting a mortgage and owning a home. I equally have no chance of renting a council property thanks to Margaret Thatcher’s very popular and vote winning policy 40 years ago ‘Right to Buy’. This involved selling off council houses and not replacing them because a home owning democracy would be a ‘better’ society. Which is true, if by ‘better’ you mean more compliant and in hock to the bank with mortgages for the bulk of their lives – the emphasis since 1979 has been on buying property and using it as capital rather than a home.

The consequences of ‘Right to Buy’ in 2021 are that: in the middle of a pandemic, with millions furloughed, unsure of their fate and an increasing dole queue thanks to entire industries disappearing; the housing market is also now blowing up. But the “outlook” is only “sunny” for those who have stable well-paid work and large deposits or access to the ‘bank of mum and dad’. These are the only people with any hope of being part of that fabled home owning democracy.

The truth is housing has always been the great class divide in Britain – a lever that all politicians like to pull when they need votes. Heating up the housing market virtually guarantees a bounce to the economy by making those not on the property ladder panicky about getting on it at any cost, even taking out mortgages they can barely afford on properties that simply aren’t objectively worth it. For example, a standard two bedroom flat in Newham in East London according to Rightmove costs around £455,000. That is pie in the sky for most families, not a realistic hope of owning a home.

All this just adds to the misery that is this hellish new decade. The hope millions have of being able to live in an affordable and safe community simply does not exist. Last year when the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak was putting financial packages together to support the economy, like every chancellor before him he cynically used the housing market to hoover up votes from the hopelessly aspirational and, of course, the middle class. No attempt was made to tackle the realities of a housing system that has been smashed for more than four decades.

The stamp duty holiday that the chancellor gave in 2020 on the first £500,000 of a property has been extended by three months in England, Northern Ireland and Wales but ended on March 31 in Scotland – with the think tank Policy Exchange calling for the temporary measures taken in relation to stamp duty and ‘Help to Buy’ schemes to become permanently funded by the taxpayer.

This is problematic in every way imaginable. Heating up the housing market based on a broken supply and demand system while doing nothing about the real issue (the lack of safe, affordable homes for everyone) leads to bubbles forming. Passing around borrowed money while the rest of the economy is shaking will only lead to one place and that is back to 2008. Do we really want to go back to dodgy subprime mortgages being sold to people that can’t afford the repayments on properties that have been artificially inflated by the market meaning the bricks and mortar is nowhere near equal to the debt? Thirteen years ago, this meant millions of mostly working class American families found themselves homeless and in debt, but because of the global nature of markets and the banking industry billions of working class people all over the world found themselves paying for the vast bailouts governments doled out to prop up the global banking industry after it gambled and lost.

We are almost a generation on since the last global crash – yet it seems no lessons have been learned. While in the UK the property market has been stable and in fact growing since 2010, that is because buy to let landlords have been filling the gaps the housing market left. Just 17% of our UK housing stock is socially owned – for all but the very lucky who have managed to get into a social home – the majority of lower earners live in inflated private rental properties.

In the last year since the first lockdown it is estimated by the Resolution Foundation that almost half a million families have fallen behind with their rent as a result of the coronavirus crisis. With the only government guidance being “to negotiate lowering rent,” the housing crisis, which has been at breaking point for many years is about to get crazily unstable. When any society has been through trauma, providing safe homes should be any government's first priority. Without a safe home, we have nothing.

After the Second World War both the Tory and the Labour parties committed to building mass social housing, in 2021 none of our politicians are talking about homes for the less well off. Why isn’t this top of the agenda again now?

Having a home somewhere safe to live as a base to get on with the rest of your life is fundamental, the Five Giants that William Beveridge set out to slay in 1942 as he introduced the idea of a Welfare State: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness, are again wide awake and making discomforting noises.

Disease has already reared its ugly head again and the world has learned the hard way over the last 12 months that a society without good healthcare for everyone is a false economy. Squalor won’t be far behind if we do not soon realise the same about housing.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
×