Recent major studies of social conditions facing workers and young people in Britain have provided further evidence of the anti-social effect of the policies demanded by big business and pursued by the Labour government. A picture emerges of a downward curve in real pay for millions of workers that has lasted for over a generation, combined with increases in living costs—especially housing—that is both deepening and widening the scope of poverty in Britain.
Britain’s 380,000 “hidden homeles
These people are “hidden homeless” since they only manage to keep off the streets by staying in various forms of temporary accommodation. The charity estimates some 75,000 people stay in bed & breakfast lodgings, 10,000 are squatters, 220,000 share overcrowded accommodation with friends or family, with 70,000 being in a household only under sufferance. The rest are those at “imminent risk” of eviction. For many, such “temporary accommodation” is far from temporary, with some homeless people being shunted from one hostel or b&b establishment to another for several years.
The soaring cost of housing in recent years also has the potential to bring about a rapid rise in homelessness. As the UK house price bubble in the 1980s showed, a rapid rise in interest rates can quickly translate into mortgage defaults and compulsory repossessions, forcing people out of their homes. In 2002, MORI Social Research Institute found that more than one in five people struggled to pay their rent or mortgage because of financial insecurity and the high cost of housing in many areas.
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