A new study by Watling and Breach finds that Britain’s housing shortage began at the beginning of the post-war period, not at its conclusion.

England and Wales saw housebuilding rates drop by a third after the introduction of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947, from 1.9 percent growth per year between 1856 and 1939 to 1.2 percent between 1947 and 2019, according to the study, which states that “even though public sector housebuilding increased from 0.2 percent a year before 1939 to 0.5 percent after 1947, annual private housebuilding fell by more than half, from an average of 1.7 percent before 1939 to 0.7 percent after 1947.” In 1955, the UK had a ratio of dwellings per person that was 5.5 percent above the European average, but by 1979 it was 1.8 percent below it, and by 2015 it had fallen further to at least 7.8 percent below the modern average, according to the study.

According to the UK Parliament, “Parliament saw it as essential to restrict the growth of large cities. The Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 laid down procedures to control urban sprawl into the countryside. All planning was to be subject to planning permission by local councils. Most importantly, every area of the country was to have a ‘development plan’ showing how each area was either to be developed or preserved.”

According to the English Housing Survey: Housing Stock Report, 2014-2015, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), 36.8 percent of the 2014 housing stock in England was constructed prior to 1945.

Last Updated on February 28, 2023 by Ramin Seddiq