Housing Crisis In UK: Causes And Consequences Essay.

Economic instability has affected many aspects of life. This has not left the younger population those who are struggling to find the jobs of their dream. The scenario is common in few countries across the globe (Mulliner, Smallbone and Maliene 2013). UK like such countries does also have the same issue. Housing ownership is now running out of the hands of the younger population. This is simply because the housing prices are climbing up to new heights with the passage of every single year. On the other hand, the average income of most citizens in the country in specific the younger population is more than six times lesser than the actual housing cost (Collinson 2017). This study is aimed at analyzing the crisis of housing in UK.

England in particular is in a terrible condition in terms of housing affordability (Poon and Garratt 2012). The housing prices in the country are more than seven times the average income of the local people. This has resulted in the most dreadful situations country has ever witnessed in the last eight years. London is one of those cities where housing affordability has now become a challenge to a large number of people. Oxford, Winchester and London are respectively the hardly hit cities in UK. The housing affordability in such cities has become the worst ever (Collinson 2017). Numerous research works have found that housing affordability do also affect the development of little kids and the adolescent. As opined by Coley et al. (2013), kids and adolescents belonging to a low income family gets influenced by the housing affordability challenges. Such families find this struggling to provide a safe and secured shelter to their kids. They are forced to live in a rented house where they live an unstable life (Coley et al. 2013).

The housing affordability issue is causing many consequences such as the follows:

On an average, income of common people is almost seven times lesser than the house pricing. In such situation, ownership has now become a challenge to the younger population. Despite the hard work they do, they are finding this difficult to own houses. They are living in an unbalanced stage of life where they do not even have a stable life (England.shelter.org.uk 2017). According to Blanchflower and Oswald (2013), rising housing price is challenging not only to the younger population to own a house but it also challenges the labor market. The author has given evidences in support of the views by taking the example of rising price of housing in the United States.

Consequences Caused

The expansiveness of housing is putting up pressure on the younger population and the common people for not being able to own the house. The situation is challenging because of two reasons such as high cost of housing and a comparative lower average income of people in UK. The lower income has not only forced a major population to be away from owning the houses but it has also troubled the monthly repayment to many. A large population in the country is finding this difficult to repay their monthly mortgage loans (England.shelter.org.uk 2017). In the opinion of Foot and Gomez (2014), growth in housing rental is lesser than the growth in the average income of the common people in UK. This actually means that the trend is shifting to rental housing because owning a house in UK has now become a challenge. Younger population is finding this difficult to repay the mortgage amount.

The existing challenge has supported the shifting of trends from owning the house to renting that. The shifting trend is unstable as well. There is no guarantee of hidden fees and eviction. A large population is finding this an alternate solution to the existing issue. However, the rental housing is not secured too (England.shelter.org.uk 2017). As opined by McDonald (2015), affordable housing is a challenging concept. The author has argued by giving the example of the United States that it is very difficult for the respective local governments to establish flawless policies to provide affordable housing. This is what has been observed in the facts stated in the chosen article that a significant population of UK is heading towards rental housing; however, this is still unstable and unaffordable.

The rising prices have caused an increment in the homelessness of a significant population. The younger population in UK is mostly incapable in owning a house. They are switching over to rented house. They view this as an alternative to the existing issue. However, the selected option is mainly insecure. This is because of many hidden facts in the dealing of rented houses. The owning of house is comparatively much reliable; however, it is increasingly running out of the hands of many. The expensiveness of housing is enlarging in its effect with the passage of every year. Reliance on private landlord is increasing. This means an increased instability of housing. People are mostly rented and are living an unstable & unsecured life in the hands of others. Such life is not progressive for the kids or the adolescents (England.shelter.org.uk 2017).

Conclusions

Clarke et al. (2015) have supported the facts that homelessness is increasing in UK among the young population. Authors have supported the facts with evidences form different statistics on the young population who are using homelessness services. They have proved the fact that there are numerous young populations who are already into the homelessness condition. The facts presented by the authors simply support the validation of truth that a large population of young group in UK is reaching to homelessness condition.

Conclusions

The housing crisis is becoming severe with the passage of years. The soaring price of housings has been adjoined with the incompetent average income of people. The increasing difference in the housing price and the average income of people in UK are the two facts that have affected the housing situations in UK. Consequently, the young population is now more reliant on the rented house, which is on the other hand is not reliable either. Rented house is unstable and risky as well. There is a threat of extra hidden prices during the time of dealing. Apart from this, private landlords do take the advantage of such circumstances. They can increase the rent at any point in time. The young population who is incompetent with the low income is now bound to rely on the rented house. They are not capable to repay the monthly mortgage, which they had taken before. In such a crisis situation, it is important to have an affordable and a reliance option in housing. However, going by the present situation, it still looks challenging. The local government needs to take some significant initiatives, which could actually provide some relief from the housing affordability issues in UK.

Construction of more houses in a new town will be a good move. This construction will be a part of the local government policy (Pleace et al. 2015). This means that the people will get an option to be in the newly created town with handful rules and regulations. Such strategy will help the people get their home in a secured policy framework. Moreover, this will also help the homelessness issue. Additionally, this will provide a reliable and affordable experience to the people living in such locations. However, the local government of UK needs to have serious considerations on the causes behind the housing issues.

References

Blanchflower, D.G. and Oswald, A.J., 2013. Does high home-ownership impair the labor market? (No. w19079). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Clarke, A., Burgess, G., Morris, S. and Udagawa, C., 2015. Estimating the scale of youth homelessness in the UK. Cambridge: Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research.

Coley, R.L., Leventhal, T., Lynch, A.D. and Kull, M., 2013. Relations between housing characteristics and the well-being of low-income children and adolescents. Developmental psychology, 49(9), p.1775.

Collinson, P. 2017. Affordable housing crisis has engulfed all cities in southern England, says Lloyds. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/26/affordable-house-prices-engulfs-southern-england-lloyds-bank [Accessed 23 Oct. 2017].

England.shelter.org.uk. 2017. What is the housing crisis - Shelter England. [online] Available at: https://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns_/why_we_campaign/the_housing_crisis/what_is_the_housing_crisis [Accessed 23 Oct. 2017].

Foot, D.K. and Gomez, R., 2014. Population ageing and sectoral growth: The case of the UK, 2006-2026. Oxford Journal: An International Journal of Business & Economics, 2(1).

McDonald, J.F., 2015. Affordable Housing: An Economic Perspective. Architecture_MPS, 7(3), pp.1-16.

Mulliner, E., Smallbone, K. and Maliene, V., 2013. An assessment of sustainable housing affordability using a multiple criteria decision making method. Omega, 41(2), pp.270-279.

Pleace, N., Culhane, D., Granfelt, R. and Knutagård, M., 2015. The Finnish homelessness strategy–an international review.

Poon, J. and Garratt, D., 2012. Evaluating UK housing policies to tackle housing affordability. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 5(3), pp.253-271.