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The problem was the planning system - only 7.7% of the land in the UK is settled. This created an artificial land shortage ratcheting up land prices. This put houses out of reach of low income people, meaning the state had to intervene. But they were also strapped by the same constraints, so cheap and nasty estates appeared.
People could not afford their own homes. What did not help was the lower working class were deliberately not educated to buying a house and could never figure out the benefits, even though they may have just been able to afford it. The more intelligent middle classes figured it out and made windfalls in their homes. At 14 years old, a light bulb lit in my head. The teacher in passing mentioned land and those who own it and the money they make. I instantly connected that with power - I was right. As a kid I could never understand how Lord Derby occupied all that land on the outskirts and we could not go onto it and Cantril Farm next door was a collection of jerry built barracks type homes - a massive contrast. I went there once and it was a world away yet so near, with deer and lakes and a big mansion.
Our planning system, backed by the large landowning aristocracy, was primarily responsible for the appalling estates. The private sector could not meet demand in a massively growing economy post-WW2 - because land prices were too high because of an artificially created land shortage, which cascaded into high house prices. There was no shortage of skills to build the houses -private or public. To keep prices down private developers made small, poky, jerry built houses. If an artificial land shortage was not created none of these amazingly expensive council blocks and estates would not have been built. They costed a fortune and had to be demolished while money was still owed on them.
Travel around western Europe. Look at the small, cheap & nasty post WW2 homes in the UK, public & private compared to what they build. We always skimp on the roof. Look at the cheap roofs in the UK, most do not have barge boards on the gables, the top windows run up to the eves to save a few courses of bricks, making the houses look like sheds. They have better planning laws than us.
The averaged sized new home:
- UK - is a paltry 76 square metres,
- Germany - with a similar population density new homes are 109 square metres, nearly half as much again in size.
- Australia - the average sized new home is 205.7 square metres,
- Netherlands - 115 square metres
- Denmark - 137 square metres. Danish rooms are twice as big as the hutches now on offer in the United Kingdom.
- Japan - a country once notorious for small homes, the average sized new home is now 140 square metres.
The averaged size living room in the UK is a miniscule 13 foot by 15 foot; a room which has to function as TV room, children’s play room, entertainment room and relaxation room. If the averaged sized man stands in the middle of a typical British living room and stretched out an arm he will hit either a wall or ceiling. British TV has many programmes dedicated to giving a larger feel to a room by careful choice of furnishing and colour co-ordination. This is an attempt to create an impression of space in undersized homes.
The housing charity, Shelter, estimate at least 500,000 households are officially overcrowded.
All this in country, the UK, with a land surplus.
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