House farmers, caravan dwellers, and the home that cost £1: Lynsey Hanley listens to the voices living out the UK’s housing crisis
Danielle and Lydia from Crowborough Road, Tooting, in A Home of Our Own
The tweet from political theorist Will Davies was intriguing: “a great combination of sociology, history and psychogeography. A kind of anti-Location Location Location”.
Will was referring to the journalist and historian Lynsey Hanley’s Radio Four series “A Home of Our Own”, where the author of Estates and Respectable applied her listening skills to the experiences of a wide range of home owners and residents, all them struggling to find their perch in the property market. “Every one of Britain's 27 million homes has a story to tell about Britain's housing crisis and how it might be fixed. Over ten episodes, Lynsey explores houses of every shape and size, new and old, right across the UK”, wrote the BBC.
The New Statesman reviewed here:
Phil Salter bought his house in Cornwall in 1989 by giving the previous owner £55,000 and his smaller, ex-council house up the hill, on a handshake. He lives in a 17th-century whitewashed fisherman’s cottage in St Mawes, now one of the county’s most desirable villages.
When he bought it, it was valued at £135,000. Today, his small home, the oldest in the village, is worth more than £1m. He will never sell it: he loves it too much; loves sitting outside his front door with a gin and tonic, chatting with passers-by.
“I’ll be going out of here in a box,” he tells BBC Radio 4’s Lynsey Hanley. But it’s a savage indictment of the cost of living in Britain today, where home ownership is once again becoming a privilege reserved for the very wealthy.
A Home of Our Own, running over a fortnight in the 15-minute slot after World at One, explores how the housing crisis is affecting people across the country, starting in Cornwall. Salter calls those buying homes locally “house farmers”: they come into the village, buy up property, remodel or extend it, and put it back on the market at a significant mark-up.
Hanley marvels at the cost of homes in St Mawes: “£1.25m for a three-bedroom cottage, once inhabited by fisherman and their families, lit by fish oil and filled with a tank of pilchards. I wonder what they would have thought!”
Across ten episodes, Hanley speaks to people who are shut out of the housing market. The picture is bleak. Rachel and Angus are determined to live in the beautiful village where Rachel grew up, Solva, in west Wales, but with prices inflated by second-home owners, they are stuck with a caravan.
In Crawley, West Sussex, Dorine and her husband, three children and two sisters all live in a two-bedroom flat. And in Tooting, London, 32-year-old Danielle still lives with her mum, unable to buy on her NHS salary. She dreams of her own home. When she gets one, she says, she will drink her morning coffee while looking out of her windows, listening to Diana Ross’s “It’s My House”.
Here’s the episodes:
Solva, Pembrokeshire
Lynsey Hanley tells the story of Rachel and Angus who live in a caravan in west Wales.
St Thomas' Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
Lynsey tells the cautionary tale of two leaseholders of a Georgian style property.
Clough Close, Middlesbrough
Lynsey tells the story of Steve whose one bedroom flat has plummeted in value.
Clarence Drive, Glasgow
Lynsey tells the story of Simon who bought his first house at the age of just 20.
Crawley
Lynsey looks at overcrowding in UK homes, telling the story of 30 year old Dorine.
Garrick Street, Liverpool
Lynsey speaks to Chris who bought his house in Liverpool for just £1.
Black's Gate Crescent, Belfast
Lynsey Hanley visits 28-year-old Katrina in her brand new affordable home in west Belfast.
Lilley Farm Oast House, Kent
Lynsey looks at proposals for housing on Greenbelt land near an coast house in Kent.
Crowborough Road, Tooting, South London
Lynsey explores why 32-year-old Danielle still lives with mum Lydia 11 years after graduating. NHS worker Danielle wants to buy a home but has been priced out of her area.
The Square, St Mawes, Cornwall