Britain's Housing Crisis: Peterborough - BBC Newsnight 

Why do governments rent emergency accommodation when it's more expensive than social housing? It seems to make no sense, like hiring a car every day instead of buying one.

The dream of getting a mortgage and becoming a homeowner is getting beyond many ordinary working people due to job insecurity and being unable to raise a deposit due to high rents.

People on the thread are saying immigration isn't to blame, but with an extra 8.5 million people coming as immigrants during the past 15 years, there must be an impact on housing and rent levels, anyone denying this is just wrong.

I remember when Peterborough had a surplus of housing. In the 80s we bought a house there for less than £11,000 and we sold it later for less than £11,000.

When the crew got their tickets from King's Cross to Peterborough (aka the North) did they not think, my god this train must be the fastest train in the world as it only takes 50 minutes!

Dividing houses into partitions where a landlord collects rent on each partition of a house, just so the landlord collects more money, should be illegal.

Put a limit on housing "benefit" paid to private landlords and you will see how things change.

"We travel to Peterborough in the North East of England" Stellar grasp of geography there.

In America today if you own your home and have five dollars in your pocket you are richer than 82% of your fellow citizens. It's like this here too.

There's is no housing crisis: there is a population crisis, which is fuelling a shortage of housing for the indiginous population.

Has Britain ever had a competent government?

Four children ! And she throws herself at the benefits system. What about personal responsibility ?

Thick government, thick policies

Wonder why so many council properties are being allowed to be empty all week and used as holiday homes etc

While I'm not a UK citizen, I think the government needs to muster up the ambition and will to build affordable housing for the masses. The laissez faire way of handling housing issues and leaving it up to market forces is just irresponsible governance.

The government knows EXACTLY what it's doing with housing whilst making a really good job of looking like they don't. Started with Thatcher & has been getting rapidly worse with every policy since. Back to Rachmanism!

I had no idea that this was going on. Kudos to BBC newsnight for this report. It's terrible that there are people milking an already unjust system. Shame on them!

It's just legal to tell everyone to up and leave when they're paying rent as promised? Jeezum...

My heart goes out to you 💔. The state of housing in the country is a disgrace. Having kids and living through this, I can only imagine. Stay strong 💪.

And GB keeps importing migrants? I so do not get governments allowing migration when they cannot take care of their own people.

This policy of taking from Tax payers to give to Mega-Landlords while hating on Normal people & Immigrants is Tory policy. Turn people against each other while you fleece them

Storage heaters are absolutely shit expensive for the Tenant . Far easier and more economical for the Tenant and landlord to install a good quality boiler and central heating system .

I live in Peterborough, Canada, population 100,000. Exact same thing going on here. My application for a crummy 1 bedroom apartment was refused on the spot because I didn't make at least $40,000(50k USD)/YR.

Wait?...what?...did they just figure this out. It's been going on 5y+. Communities are dead.

The problem is the private landlords exploiting a government policy.

These private landlords are ripping off the council. I feel really sorry for Nicky, her kids and people like her. The British housing bubble needs to burst, it will be painful but without it there is no way hardworking families on normal wages will ever be able to achieve the basic and important aim of owning their own house outright. Also, £720!! from the council for a house with no central heating, these property tycoons are taking the piss. Disgraceful. We need to build more council houses because it'll be cheaper in the long run and it'll help out people who work hard, earn good money but cannot get on the housing ladder. Perhaps councils can give these people long term security but keep housing stock by giving these people council houses for their entire life in return for reduced rent. If they break the law, they could lose their houses and the rent could be used for building new council houses. This is just an idea from an 18 year old but in my opinion its more creative than what our brain dead politicians are coming up with.

1 - build more houses 2 - rethink what affordable means - not 80% of the market value, but 30-50% 2 - then, 90% of all houses should be affordable (because 90% of the population cant afford houses of the market value) 3 - put a cap on renting. You, instead, subsidise rents (from taxpayers money) that go to rich landlords 4 - stop property speculations (e.g. someone can legally buy a house and resell it with a profit with no time restricted period). a house should be a home, not a commodity 5- build social housing 6 - dont allow UK properties to be sold to foreign investors 7 - ban leashold apartments or build flats with at least 900 years lease 8 - people and the government allowed councils to charge a tax (today known as the council tax) on occupied properties - this makes housing even more expensive. reduce the tax by 90%

But up further north there are 1000's of empty houses.

I don't agree with storage heaters, that shouldn't be allowed. However some people get themselves into these situations due to poor decisions that they've made.

Why 4 kids? Were you rich? Is one kid not enough, two not enough? Every couple has a right to have a kid but as parents you have a obligation to look after them if you have one and even more obligation if you have multiple kids. The government should not have to provide you accommodation especially when you need a larger place because you have 4 kids.

Bloody hell, just found this. I use to live in St Michael's gate in Peterborough in 1994, then it was the council and they only allowed a maximum period. I loved it, but still was sad I moved.

So my thoughts on it aren't to just build council estates, because council estates create a lot of crime and other problems for generations. Instead you build affordable housing, lots of it. Whether it's to rent or to buy you out controlled pricing on a lot of new homes, whether privately built or government built. Operating at a small profit. This should deflate the market and allow both interested buyers and renters to afford homes in other areas and the government to buy individual council houses, rather than whole estates of council homes.

Hard hitting evidence. Lady made a curutual point social housing should not be a profit market. Landlords are profiting from the Poor & working class and the government and councils across the UK should be working together to resolve this matter. Why are we not fighting and marching to make more awareness. This makes me sad and angry.

How can a mother of FOUR children complain that the house is too small or cold when the government is paying 3/4 of the rent? Here is some food for thought, maybe only have one or two children and be in a position to offer them a nice, comfortable lifestyle rather than​ having four kids and only just getting by.

If you build more roads and houses, the more people will use and need them. The logic that people need houses so " build lots more" is flawed because it leads to more people wanting more houses as a result. you are just creating vast amounts of infrastructure. Get a handle on the population problem. ( immigration quantity is a huge factor.)

Why does the first woman have four kids? Having children is the single most expensive financial committment you make in your life. It's comparable to a mortgage. This woman might as well have four mortgages. If you can't provide for a child you shouldn't have one. Plan ahead, it's your responsibility as a parent. Also...why does second woman think it's fine to simply declare that she does not have any savings like it's someone else's responsibility to prepare her for an uncertain future? But yeah, it's all only the government's fault here. Nobody else to blame.

Where's the father of the children?

all houses not owned by the people living in the them, and second homes should all be compulsory purchased and rented out by the government or council.

North East? Last time i looked Peterborough was in Northamptonshire in the Midlands.

What limits are there are construction density? In the U.S. we have a major housing shortage in some places caused by things like height limits, minimum lot sizes, maximum number of housing units on a lot, & parking space minimums.

Does people renting in the UK have leases as we call it in America, basically its a contract between the landlord and tenant. Its usually 1 year and its up to the landlord if it gets renewed, but a lease or Contract usually states that the tenant can live on the property and cannot be removed unless they are doing something illegal or are a nuisance and if the landlord does throw the tenant's out for no reason, the landlord must owe the tenant not only the Security Deposit, but pay all the way up to the lease ending date. It can also mean a court battle, but its the best thing we have in America when it comes to tenants right.

How do the councils get away with allowing property firms to charge such inflated rates to "help" homeless??? I bet a portion of that Sky high rent for substandard homes goes right back to the government!

YOOOUU WEERE NOOT THEERE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE INTERVIEEEEEEEEEEW!

my parents bought our house for £65,000... today its over £400,000.

wages r so low in the UK wonder why people r so poor

I have seen more homeless people in my local area but it is wrong and I can't keep working past trying to ignore this injuries soo sad so I have to do something about it

WTF EVERY SINGLE person in this documentary has glasses! Weird.

When these issues should have been the focus of he nation we were being told about Brexit. This crisis has been going on for a decade and is tantamount to negligence.

Britain needs to really change the way it treats homeless people Mentle health problems It's been too many years and nothing is changing

The problem is related to mass immigration. The increase in population exceeds the creation of new housing. Supply and demand.

My heart goes out to Nicki and her children.

It's a return to serf society, slow but sure.

It's virtually impossible to get on the property ladder unless you're either earning a six figure salary or are lucky enough to have family that can help you with the deposit. The cost of living (e.g. rent/energy/food etc) now is such that you'd struggle to save up for a deposit even on a six figure salary. There just isn't enough houses for the population. Personally, I don't think owning your own home is the way forward. I'd much rather see a similar system to Germany whereby you rent for life but the rent is considerably cheaper thus increasing the living standards of the bottom 50%. At the end of the day, you never really own anything as such. Everyone dies. There's no need to stick to the old system of mortgages and owning your own property so long as the cost of renting is brought down considerably.

The British once had the greatest empire and build railways around the world now they becoming homeless because they can’t build a block off flats in 2018

fair enough government cut the benefits of renting out so the landlords use the system to their advantage it's just a case or the government trying to be greedy and it backfiring

very often politicians are owners of several properties and there is no interest from them to change the system. I do not think this situation will change soon...

If she is so poor then why did she make four children?

Why the creepy music throughout the story?

The average rent in Peterborough is almost £900 a month, fuck that, move out

All new money to the banks. Your house was worth 200k 10 years on 600k all that straight in there pocket for so you can have a mortgage..

The UK private investment . Not state investment. The uk gravy train

Keep it

Here's my take on the housing crisis. Back when Thatcher was in office and came up with the right to buy,in theory it was a great idea to be able to buy your home from the council at a fraction of the market price. However there was a few things wrong with the setup. First, what you probably didn't know is that her son bought up a good number of ex council flats.40 ex council flats to be exact. How exactly did this happen when the law said that you had to live in the property for 3 years before you had a right to buy. Tory cronies made it so that 1 third of all ex council flats are owned by rich landlords. 2nd, with all the extra money that they have from the sale of properties, one would think that they would have reinvested into social housing but no. In the UK nowadays there is not a new build on council land that has,to say the least, 50% flat at 'affordable' rent. What the government is failing to forget is that when they price all us plebs or indentured servants out of the cities and towns we will have to move somewhere else and leave them to it. Let's see if they can sweep their own streets, clean their own toilets,collect their own rubbish and all the other jobs that are below them.

Property is expensive because demands is about 10x times that of supply. Supply is overwhelming due to mass immigration. That is why social housing crisis is massive is will be for years only mass deportation will cure the crisis!

Definately not good. ,

Housing as goverment regeneration in policy to be as affordable in town with city.

The same thing is happening in the usa,and i hear the worse is very soon.Its not just us going through this but most rich nations the rents need to be control landlords are charging what they want people pay the bills . They don't fix the apartments and 300 more every time they feel like it.people are house poor .

Two things need to happen firstly make it illegal to make people homeless and secondly make there little pet term for not helping you illegal intentionally homeless

All this sounds very familiar. Money rules in the UK and the US. And to hell with the people if they can't afford to find suitable housing.

You can always count on the government taking on a problem and making it worse.

I agree that there is a housing shortage in the UK. I worry for my kids. In 20 years it will be even harder to get on the housing market. There are the usual comments on here from the small minded anti-immigration Brexit fans. Placing the blame on the poor and the people who need the support of the government. This is what those in power want everyone to do, blame those people who don't have a voice. Housing and the building trade is a joke in the UK. Just out to make as much money in the shortest amount of time. How can an average house cost between £150k-£200k to build from start to finish, but to build an extension onto a small house cost £50k? It doesn't make sense. The government and politicians are to blame 100%. Its not in the interest of many politicians to build more houses. Many of them own more then one house and they themselves are landlords. Why would they want to stop earning thousands of pounds a year? The companies that build houses are also able to influence government decisions as they have become multinational organisations. I do think that there are too many people in the UK who do not take their own social responsibilities into account before starting families. Being socially responsible and thinking about your community is not something that many people consider for many reasons unfortunately. Finally the blame can not be placed on the private landlords. They are operating inside the law, set out by government, and they are operating inside of the guidelines laid out by local councils. So who is to blame really? Yes the landlords are operating in a way that one might say is not morally correct but you can not blame them for wanting to make their share holders profit! If the government built 300,000 low cost houses and apartments every year, for the next 4 years it would put a massive dent in the housing shortage. However it would require consecutive governments to do the same for the next 15 years to really have an impact on extortionate house prices in the UK.

"The landlords would say this is how they make their money and they're not doing anything illegal".. What a stupid line of questioning from the interviewer.

Why do the British call a subdivision a housing estate? Like I was playing bloxburg one time (a game where you build your own house on a plot similar to the sims but you live as the sims) and some British person asked to live in my housing estate but it looked nothing like this. I had 8 tract suburban houses each with 3 beds 2.5 baths and a 2 car garage. How is that anything similar to those houses in the video which are duplexes/ townhouses? Do the British call all subdivisions housing estates? Also if so why? I thought an estate was a large home on a large property these houses are dinky and my virtual subdivision was only built on about 1 acre of land so the tract houses weren't getting much yard

The cost of living is going up because Britain continues to take in so many refugees and immigrants much as the US is now when you have a higher demand in the same amount of supply prices increase

This is a national shame. The government don’t want to build the houses that are needed because it will affect the housing ‘market’! Labour are as much to blame as the Tories.

Wow thanks Newsnight for that uplifting story.... I’ll go into a corner now and think about all these horrible things my generation are no doubt being blamed for ....

Why do people have children if they dont even own a home? That doesnt make sense to me.

Will the councils start paying benefits recipients’ car insurance next? Lol

I’m born and bred from this dire place .. (family were from Ireland and London so no links to this awful town) I’ve never been so miserable , depressed and bullied by weirdos with six toes and Weird accents. Left aged 17 snd never looked back. Horrific weirdo people

Mass uncontrolled immigration is creating the most lucrative market for landlords and leaseholders.. Unlimited supply of people seeking housing =RECORD profits ....if you cant afford it someone else will..

Why did the government let all these millions of eastern Europeans into the UK when we already had a housing crisis. we are now in a farcical situation in which Eastern European families are given priority over our own single males looking for housing.these guys are very fortunate if they get offered a crummy bedsit in the worst possible areas.

Some people own 100 houses, others own no houses.

The housing issue is casued by nothing but private investment and lack of govt. control over the private housing sector; furthermore the rise in homelessness and people in need of care has risen due to conservative party policy.

Nothing holy, good, or saintly about 'st. Michael's gate'...

One word Lincon Road.

I live in Peterborough :D

I have sympathy for the working poor trying to put a roof over their heads. I think that controlling the supply of emergency housing via something like rent control would just make the problem worse as investors would not provide housing and then more people would be living on the street and families would be separated.

Greenbelts...

I sold my rental houses . Few reasons really under new rules housing money is paid to the tenant . I found tents do not look after the property also you pay full council tax is paid on an empty property . Also when it came to selling the estate agent said the value of the property value was worth less because it was an ex rental . Renting is a mugs game . I will put my money in property abroad now . My 3 bed houses where modernised and £500 a month .

Where is the father of this woman's childeren??!! She nedds to get money from him!!!

But Peterborough is a dump pass it all the time in a lorry

Keyword "Management company"..................

Lets talk about people that don't take care of their homes leaving damage. And homes used by criminals for criminal activity. Abd lets talk about and expose dirty landlords.

Tax relief on affordable housing. Grants for mortgage payers

What a horrible country we now live in

Making people homeless to help homeless people, the minutiae of the rest of this peace may as well regard the price of tea in China. So how do you get a net decrease in homelessness???

So who`s fault is it? Do landlords sign a contract when they buy a House on how they will manage their asset? My experience tenants don`t keep to contracts but land lords do. so maybe this left, nannystate Britian needs to get its act together and get Landlords to agree to a Morality clause when purchasing their next investment! Of course it will be the Morality of The greater good and not individual effort of risk and reward.

Why are they breeding like rabbits? That's the origin of all the problems

This house summarises living quality in the UK. We sell houses price based on how many bedrooms they have not by square foot. people like this actually buy such a space for money and suddenly it becomes acceptable to live in small houses that are overlooked and you can hear your neighbours. If everyone just out rite refused to live like this then houses would be built better and bigger. unfortunately British people and immigrants who flock here accept living like this and that fuels the property market selling boxes for millions. I would take an american house made out of wood that turns up on a lorry as flat pack but at least is big enough to live a real quality life in. as long as it wasn't overlooking or being overlooked by other people. American houses are just so much nicer even though they are made fast and cheap at least the quality of living is good inside it and it was cheap all along. English houses and living standards are actually disgraceful when you think about it. 95% of the population live on top of each other and can see into neighbours houses and hear their neighbours when sat inside! Everyone has a meaning of what makes a house a home. well mine is: A house cant be a home if the neighbours can see you or hear you when you are at home. this includes the garden and driveway area! Is it just me? we dont just have a housing crisis in the UK, our actual houses are the crisis!

Just shows you 2023 it is even worse. Thanks Torry