08/10/2024
Once upon a time (1980), 32% of people (1 in 3) received council housing, with a small number in private rented, and the majority able to afford mortgage borrowed accommodation
From 1980 to 2024, the council housing figure collapsed from 32% to only 16% (1 in6), with the balance needing to rent from private landlords, typically more expensive for inferior accommodation
At the same time, mortgages have been impossibly unaffordable for most young professionals since the 1990s, forcing workers to live in private rented accommodation instead of mortgage hire purchase to become homeowners
Rental of private accommodation, which is unmanaged and often inferior, has become more typical than council and housing association housing. The Walthamstow rental I lived as bedsit tenant is the exception, a competent well kept private rental. Most of the other 15 were squalid
London is worst case: probably half of people needing to live in London for work face the rental of inferior accommodation from landlords for double the price of council accommodation. Negative coin, because London has become so expensive that only an £80000 salary can achieve first time buyer mortgage loan to escape workers from the private rental trap
Drag queens used to shout “council or private” to establish partisan lines within the audience. Sadly such a gross simplification that actually wrong, missing the majority who cannot have council or mortgage accommodation
The sad truth is that the majority in London (where accommodation more than twice the cost of elsewhere), and a significant minority elsewhere, are neither council or private, but sufferering typically inferior accommodation at expensive rents from private landlords. Good landlords are a minority
I hope the reality check helps
Personal account:
I rented from 3 Portsmouth and 13 London landlords when student and young professional from 1987 to 2009, and wasn’t able to begin the challenge of 25 year mortgage borrowing until aged 40, with only a tight 25 years to reduce the loan before retirement
Information at https://www.statista.com/statistics/544709/tenants-among-population-uk/