London's housing crisis

Quote

‘He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.’   Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

News

The proposal by Newham Council in London to relocate up to 500 families half way up the country caused a furore this week.  The government’s new cap on housing benefits means local councils will struggle to find affordable housing for homeless families in the private rented sector, forcing many of them to look further afield.

Relocation is nothing new; previous examples include the Garden Cities in the early part of the 20^th century, slum clearances of the 1930s, and post war relocations to New Towns.   Critics of the present government’s policy say the benefit cap will lead to a form of ‘social cleansing’ as poorer families are moved out of parts of London. 

The conclusion drawn by most commentators is that since demand for housing continually exceeds supply, the only lasting solution is to build more homes.  That is indeed necessary and important, but there is another underlying cause of the problem which is invariably taken as a given feature of our society – the decline in household size. 

In 1971 there were 2.9 people per household on average, now it is 2.4 in Britain – a fall of 17%.  The most significant factor in this change is the rise in one person households, from 7 million in 2001 to 7.7 million in 2011 – an increase of 70,000 per year.  This trend is driven primarily by divorce and separation. 

A long term strategy for tackling the housing crisis relationally is to invest in couple relationship education. Efforts aimed at helping couples stay together will have a knock on effect on the demand for housing; similarly, any support by government for elderly people to live under the same roof as one of their children or grandchildren, as in Hong Kong and Singapore, has both relational and economic benefits. Relational issues are a major factor causing the housing crisis; we should also recognise that they have a major role in its solution.

Read on

The Relationships Foundation published a compelling report on the value to families and wider society of investing in relationship education for couples; download the Building Strong Foundations report here.

Walk the talk

We are told the Englishman’s home is his castle; how are you thinking about your housing, especially in the long term?  Might it be worth considering how your house could become – or remain – a multi-generational family home?

The Last Word

From the Bible, John 19:26-27 ‘When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.’