The Impact of Covid-19 on the UK Housing Crisis – Part One
As we approach a monumental four years since the onset of UK lockdowns resultant from the global Covid-19 pandemic, the profound decline of the UK housing market becomes ever present.
Figure 1: A deserted Arcade Street near Norwich, Norfolk during the first UK Covid-19 lockdown (Simak, 2020)
In the period from January 2020 to December 2022, market prices increased by over 20%. Comparatively, between 2017 and 2020, house prices increased only by approximately 7% (Halifax, 2023).
Figure 2: Table presenting average price of a UK home by property type (Halifax, 2023)
In a battle to ‘stop the spread’ of the virus, the nation shut down and brought the economy to a grinding halt. Along with it, the development and construction industry. Consequently, the current supply of homes simply does not meet the need nor demand for safe housing.
As we now face the aftermath of lockdowns and the realities of the nationwide housing crisis, we must question how deep rooted these problems are, and how we can work to battle the crisis.
Housing Shortages and Emerging Targets
Robertson recognises previous housing shortages in the UK resultant from wartime neglect of construction but argues the origins of ‘The Great British Housing Crisis’ lie in the onslaught of Thatcher’s ‘Right to Buy’ scheme introduced in the 1980s, resulting in the mass privatisation of social housing and thus increase in owner-occupation (Robertson, 2017). While the root cause of these issues is still debated, what becomes more pressing is considerations for the systems we must introduce to battle the disparities.
A 2020 report by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee sets out that England alone needs c. 90000 more socially rented homes in the next fifteen years to meet demand, despite only 7000 homes being built in the year prior (Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 2020). In order to achieve these figures, a seismic shift is needed in both the planning system and design process.
Figure 3: Table showing total new housing targets by region (Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 2020)
So, what are the proposed solutions? (Royal Town Planning Institute, 2023)
- Building on Britain’s Road Belt – increasing opportunities for place-making and land-capture;
- Opportunities for new settlements – recognising the need for a strategic national approach;
- Urban Densification – improving the walkability of cities and the standard housing model; and
- Retrofit at Scale – retrofitting existing homes to meet new policy targets
Conclusion
Building new homes and settlements is an onerous process, and put simply, is easier said than done. To meet government set targets there is a clear need for interdisciplinary communication to ensure we do not repeat our history and resort to mass-housing which shortly falls into a state of disrepair, as is infamous of many inter-war and post-war housing estates in the UK (Boughton, 2024). With delays from the Covid-19 pandemic creating a domino effect on the housing market, how long will it take for the UK to recover?
References
Boughton, J (2024). Municipal Dreams, Blog. Available at: https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/
House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee (2020). Build more social housing, Third Report of Session 2019-21
Lloyds Banking Group, Halifax (2023). Press Release – Three years on: how the pandemic reshaped the UK housing market.
Robertson, M (2017). The great British housing crisis. Capital & Class, 41(2), 195-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309816816678571
Royal Town Planning Institute, (2023). Urban Design Network Conference 2023: Exploring design solutions to the housing crisis
Simak, E (2020). A deserted Arcade Street near Norwich, Norfolk. Available at: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6455601
