Like many advanced economies, Britain is in the grip of a housing affordability crisis. Average home prices are now nearly eight times that of incomes, more than double what they were twenty years ago. For property owners, this has provided enormous benefits. Since 1995 alone, the value of Britain’s housing stock has increased by over £5 trillion — accounting for three-quarters of new household wealth. In the early 2000s, home price inflation was so great that 17 percent of working-age adults earned more from their house than from their job.

But as home prices have continued to increase and the gap between home prices and earnings has grown larger, the cost of housing for those locked out of property ownership has become prohibitive. In the absence of adequate social housing, many have increasingly found themselves with little choice but to rent privately. For those stuck in the private rental market, the proportion of income spent on housing has risen from around 10 percent in 1980 to 36 percent today — among the highest in Europe.

The consequences have been severe. The number of homeless people in England has hit a record high, having more than doubled since 2010. Across the country communities are being segregated along socioeconomic lines. The result is a growing divide between those who own property (or have a claim to it), and those who do not.