How do we fix the housing crisis? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series, in which our writers share their experiences of the UK’s dysfunctional housing system and examine how we can fix it.
The cruel bargain of only being able to buy a house when a loved-one diesThe UK’s new rental scandal that no one is talking aboutHow the van-life generation made homelessness into an aestheticThe ‘spinster’ housing crisis can no longer be ignoredThere’s nothing attractive about being a landlord anymore
For decades, Britain operated on a very simple formula. Work hard, buy a house, watch it go up in value, and eventually use that wealth to retire, help your children, or move somewhere better.
People often talk about education as the great engine of social mobility, but I would argue that for much of modern Britain, housing has been one of the most reliable routes to getting ahead. Not just for the super-rich with their sprawling property portfolios, but for ordinary people. Teachers, shopkeepers, plumbers, small business owners, people like my dad, who spent years working in restaurants. Housing wasn’t just somewhere to live, it was how many people built wealth.
As wages stagnated, pensions became less common (I still need to sort mine out), and the cost of living lurched from one crisis to another, property became Britain’s closest thing to a wealth-building machine for normal people. Buy a home, hold on to it long enough, watch the area become gentrified, wait for a Gail’s to appear, and chances were you’d come out ahead.
