Skip to main content
Shelter Logo
England

On the Up: the Housing Crisis in the North

By: Catherine Grannum
Published: December 2004

On the Up: the Housing Crisis in the North

National indices reveal that house prices are rising faster in the three regions that make up the north of England than anywhere else in the country. All three regions showed rates of increase above 20 per cent. Homelessness is also rising in the north.

Some localities in the north have declined so severely that no one wants to live there, leading to high levels of empty properties. Government regeneration funding is being poured into Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders across the north to try to correct this, but these projects are bringing new problems: increased evictions, rising prices and the falling supply of emergency housing.

This investigaton examines the three key elements contributing to the housing crisis in the north - rising house prices, increasing homelessness and neighbourhood decline - and proposes key recommendations for change.