Dickensian Housing? It’s Worse Today!

The state of the housing crisis is now so bad it is ‘unfair’ to compare it to the Victorian era, says a leading historian.

David Olusoga has described housing in the UK as “worse than the Victorian era”. Calling the housing crisis “the greatest injustice of the 21st century”, Olusoga said the problems are severe.

He said: “The same segregation seen in the 19th century are being repeated now. But now we are more thorough. Another feature of the Victorian housing crisis that I would argue is returning is rent.”

“That is where the poorest in society are spending a higher proportion of their wages on rent than other classes. It is unfair on the Victorian era to say the current crisis is Victorian, it’s worse than that.”

He did however say that, despite “housing conditions that we thought had gone” being back again, “history tells we can fix them.” He added: “The government has yet to act as if this is a crisis. Governments were massively in debt in 1918 and 1945 but still those governments saw housing as a central part.”

“This government does not have that comparable vision. There are some people in the government who I don’t think know anyone who is on the wrong side of the housing crisis.”

David Olusoga recently presented a four-part BBC2 series A House Through Time, on the history of houses. The first episode featured a house on one of Liverpool’s famous historical areas, Falkner Street. Unfortunately, the series is no longer available on iplayer.