The UK housing emergency: personal reflections

It is widely believed that Britain is grappling with a housing emergency. This may be the culmination of policies and practices deeply rooted in the past, but its extent and accelerating impact on the lives of families and, especially, children, make headlines every day. No wonder scholars and activists, like the public at large, take it so personally. This article, prefaced by a short introduction, comprises two reflections from a discussion in the British Academy’s popular Summer Showcase series, which also benefitted from a lively presentation by Kieren Yates around her book All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In (2023, Simon and Shuster). One author tackles the injustices of a ‘blame game’ around limited housing supply, the other offers a moving testimony to the carelessness built into housing environments by the long running under-provision of accessible homes. This article accompanies another in this issue, ‘Six provocations on the origins and impacts of the UK housing emergency’, by Ben Ansell, Martin Daunton, Emily Grundy, John Muellbauer, Michael Murphy, Avner Offer, and Susan J. Smith.