The Housing Crisis After Brexit

The Housing Crisis After Brexit

What are the implications of Brexit for the housing crisis in the UK? Danny Dorling offers some answers at Urbed’s 4×4 event, held in Manchester on July 13th 2016.

The talk begins by discussing what a better politics in Britain might be, the reasons for the housing crisis and how it differs from previous crises. It covers issues such as rising homelessness and private renting among the young and people with young families. The wide variation in public spending across Europe is revealed to illustrate why there are so many alternatives to current British housing and social policy. The situation in the USA is described as a warning of where we may be heading if we do not curtail greed. The huge increase in the wealth of a few private landlords in the UK is illustrated. The Brexit votes is discussed and mapped alongside a map of immigration across all of Europe. This reveals that most of the UK has very few migrants. The only regions to have many migrants are the ones that voted to remain. Migrants, of course, did not get to vote. The talk ends by looking at what can happen to the housing market of a once very wealthy nation. Neil Monnery’s example of the 250 year decline in housing prices in Amsterdam from 1740 to 1990 is cited. We do not know what will actually happen. We do know that almost everything related to housing has changed to some extent as a result of how Britain voted on June 23rd 2016, and that the repercussions will be felt for many years to come. There is no need for all the repercussions to be bad. But we must realise that our current housing crisis was not caused by immigration, but by greed.

A Better Politics

A Better Politics