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by Rebecca Searle (Author)
In History of the Housing Crisis, Rebecca Searle offers a unique insight into the long history of the housing crisis, telling three stories that are central to understanding the contemporary crisis. The first explores the growth of owner occupation and how this was fostered by generations of parliamentarians as they wrested to contain the disruptive potential of democratization. The rise and fall of council housing is traced in the second story, which documents how a rent strike organized by Glasgow women forced the introduction of rent controls and council house building. Finally, the third story details the surprising legacy of the strikes, which was the boost they gave to the housing finance industry. Searle charts how successive property booms were fueled by lenders using financial mechanisms to displace risk to extend loans to lower-earning households. Rising interest rates placed strain on overextended borrowers and as boom turned to bust, wider economic turbulence ensued. Today we sit upon the largest housing bubble yet seen. As interest rates creep up, this book offers a timely intervention on how housing policy could better house the people.
Author Biography
Rebecca Searle is a contemporary historian whose work focuses on the ways in which the study of the past can be used to make critical interventions in the politics of the present. She is a principal lecturer at the University of Brighton and deputy director of the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics, and Ethics. Searle established and leads the University of Brighton Housing Forum, which brings together researchers, community organizations and policymakers to develop local solutions to the housing crisis in Brighton and Hove.
