History of the Housing Crisis

Rebecca Searle

This book presents a history of the struggle that has brought us to the present crisis. The way housing was organised in mid-twentieth century Britain did a better job of providing people with decent, secure and affordable homes than the way it is ordered today. This was not benevolently bestowed by some caring government but was won through collective struggle. Council housing, rent controls and regulated tenancies represented not only an important set of material gains, but a recognition by the state that it had a responsibility to house the people. During the 1980s these gains were eroded and ever since successive governments from both political camps have sought to remove the state from the provision and regulation of housing. This transformation was also the result of political struggle. This book demonstrates that housing was a key vehicle through which neoliberal ideas were translated into policy and practice. By every measure this experiment has been a failure. Through an understanding of the range of strategies deployed in the struggle for better housing, we can begin to work out how to continue this fight today.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 144 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-78661-624-1 • Hardback • November 2022 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

978-1-78661-626-5 • eBook • November 2022 • $45.00 • (£35.00) (coming soon)

Series: Polemics

Subjects: Political Science / Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development, History / Social History, Philosophy / Movements / Critical Theory

History of the Housing Crisis

Hardback

Summary

This book presents a history of the struggle that has brought us to the present crisis. The way housing was organised in mid-twentieth century Britain did a better job of providing people with decent, secure and affordable homes than the way it is ordered today. This was not benevolently bestowed by some caring government but was won through collective struggle. Council housing, rent controls and regulated tenancies represented not only an important set of material gains, but a recognition by the state that it had a responsibility to house the people. During the 1980s these gains were eroded and ever since successive governments from both political camps have sought to remove the state from the provision and regulation of housing. This transformation was also the result of political struggle. This book demonstrates that housing was a key vehicle through which neoliberal ideas were translated into policy and practice. By every measure this experiment has been a failure. Through an understanding of the range of strategies deployed in the struggle for better housing, we can begin to work out how to continue this fight today.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 144 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-78661-624-1 • Hardback • November 2022 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

978-1-78661-626-5 • eBook • November 2022 • $45.00 • (£35.00) (coming soon)

Series: Polemics

Subjects: Political Science / Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development, History / Social History, Philosophy / Movements / Critical Theory

Author

Rebecca Searle is a contemporary historian whose work focuses on the ways in which the study of the past can be used to make critical interventions in the politics of the present. She is a principal lecturer at the University of Brighton and deputy director of the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics. Searle established and leads the University of Brighton Housing Forum, which brings together researchers, community organisations and policy makers to develop local solutions to the housing crisis in Brighton and Hove.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Property
Chapter 2: Housing the People
Chapter 3: Boom and Bust: The Growth of Housing Finance
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

Enlightening, inspiring and revealing in equal measure. From the plotting of Conservatives to the failures of New Labour and the rearising of radicalism in Scotland, Rebecca Searle’s brilliant account of the housing history of Britain not only details where we have come form, but also where we need to move to next.

— Danny Dorling, professor of geography, University of Oxford, UK

History of the Housing Crisis

Rebecca Searle

History of the Housing Crisis

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