80 per cent agree UK has a housing crisis

By four to one the public think that there is a housing crisis in Britain according to an Ipsos poll published in the Evening Standard yesterday. The 80% who take this view include 44% who strongly agree. By comparison, 18% disagree there is a crisis in Britain including only 3% who strongly disagree. Underpinning this, the majority disagree that there is enough affordable housing available to buy or rent in the local area (59%), agree that is harder to buy or rent now than it was for their parents (77%), and that it will be harder for today’s children to buy or rent in the future (90%). But the poll also shows that the sense of crisis nationally does not necessarily translate to a sense of crisis locally with 44% agreeing that there is a housing crisis in their local area and 49% disagreeing. Nor does it guarantee support for new house building; 52% agree that new homes need to be built locally, 45% disagree.

• Read Ben Page’s article on the housing crisis (PDF)
  • An edited version of this article appeared on the Evening Standard website
• Download the survey topline (PDF)
• Download the computer tables (PDF)
• Download our housing snakes & ladders Infographic (PDF)

Technical note Interviewing took place by telephone between 12-14 January and involved interviews with 1,015 British adults aged 18+. Data has been weighted to the known population profile.