Bunting and flags outside homes during the European Football Championship on the Barclays Hill Estate in Burnley on June 19.
Photographer: Tom Skipp/BloombergEven Britain’s Cheapest City Has a Housing Crisis
The city’s struggles illustrate challenges ahead for a new government intending to confront a nationwide housing shortage.
Following an election in which housing proved to be a key issue, the situation in the northern English city of Burnley shows just how pervasive Britain’s property crisis has become.
A former mill town of roughly 95,000 at the heart of the so-called Red Wall that traditionally voted Labour but swung to the Conservatives at the 2019 election, Burnley faces shortages that are familiar across the country: Steep rises in rent and house prices, stagnant wages and a shortage of affordable new homes. But one thing sets Burnley apart. While people struggling with affordability in Britain could look somewhere cheaper, that isn’t possible here, because no better options exist. With an average house price of just over £123,000 ($157,000), the place already has the cheapest housing stock of any UK city.