Mobilising Housing Histories

Introduction

DAVID KROLL

Urban populations continue to increase in most regions of the world, often outpacing the provision of adequate housing.¹ London, as a growing metropolis, is in the middle of a severe housing crisis, widely evident in the press and in political debate. This crisis is caused and exacerbated by a combination of factors: increase in population and number of households; dependency on a market that fails to meet demand; planning restrictions on urban expansion; rising rents and house prices driven up by low supply; the credit boom and foreign investment; inequalities in access to housing; a decline of the affordable housing stock; and the reinforcement of the general trend to exclude lower-to-middle-income households from ...