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 from, but also where we need to move to next.

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

An outstanding survey of Britain’s current housing crisis, its terrible effects on growing numbers of housing-deprived, and its origins in centuries of conservative commitment to grasping private property ownership. By 1915 so many could not afford decent housing that they rebelled, led by a Glasgow women’s rent strike which scared the government into imposing rent controls and funding council housing. This belated, incomplete recognition of a human right to decent housing survived to the 1980s, when Thatcher returned to the old ways, leading to a situation now comparable with 1915. As Searle concludes, only renewed resistance will end this return to inhuman housing inequality.

Pat Thane, visiting professor in history, Birkbeck College London

This engaging and important new book shows exactly why understanding the past matters. In Searle's hands the history of housing sheds new light on the development of modern Britain. History of the Housing Crisis both explains the current housing crisis and suggests how it might be resolved. Everyone should read it.

Claire Langhamer, PhD, Director of the Institute of Historical Research

Searle offers a compact book of three chapters exploring the current British housing crisis. She traces this crisis back several centuries to an era before people described the desire to own property as “natural.” Searle convincingly reveals that generations of parliamentarians created this aspiration by crafting policies that gradually shifted England away from a feudal order, in which land represented a network of “rights and obligations,” to a vision of land as an asset. Council housing and rent controls, however, provided adequate housing to many who could not obtain owner occupation. The 1980s saw a disastrous shift. Parliamentarians on both sides supported owner occupation, leading to a massive sale of council houses. Rent controls enacted after the 1915 Glasgow rent strike were lifted in 1988. Questionable building society practices long created an unstable foundation for homeownership, and the entry of banks into the mortgage market triggered a global financial upset in 2007. Since then, policy has allowed housing finance to become an even more powerful economic factor while housing values have far exceeded wage growth, contributing to inequality. Searle concludes with policy suggestions to reduce this disparity. Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

Choice Reviews