Chapter 19: Housing

Chapter 19: Housing 1. Houses, not flat2. Private property and public property3. The importance of “home”4. Individuality and conformity5. Interiors: The importance of cosiness6. Owning and renting7. Homelessness

Houses, not flats 1

Most people in Britain want to live in a detached house such as “stately home”, cottage . . . because it ensures privacy and is a status symbol.

Only when they cannot afford to live anywhere else, they will live in flats. People really hate living in flats because they don’t suit British attitudes.

Private property and public property

2

While a detached house can be clear between private property and the public domain, flats may not have. That is the reason why almost everyone in Britain don’t want to live in flats.

The importance of “home”

With British people, house is an object. They will sell their house with reasonable price and move to other house. The houses themselves are just investments so they leads to a strange approach towards house prices.

3

Individuality and conformityFlats don’t give enough privacy and scope for the expression of individuality. However, not everything about housing in Britain can show individuality.

4

Most houses are built by organizations, not individuals so people can get similar to any house on the estate. That is the reason why everybody wants to build an extension to their house or even garden shed to make different with other single house.

Interiors: The importance of cosiness

First, British people like cosy atmosphere in their houses. They don’t focus on background of house because they usually use cheap items, mass-produced furniture and so on.

5

Next, tradition is part of cosiness such as the open fire. In the past, people use it to keep warm so it is the perfect traditional symbol of warmth.

Moreover, most older houses have two general living rooms: the front room for formal visits, the back room for family members and close friends. However, most modern smaller ones have only one living room with two doors: the front door and the back door. The back door is for family and close friends only.

- About 70% of all the houses in Britain are occupied by their owners and almost all of these were bought with a mortgage.- Mortgages are available from building societies, banks and other financial institutions

6 Owning and renting

- The proportion of ‘owner-occupiers’ tend to increase more than ‘council tenants’ and ‘ tenants from private landlords’ in numbers- Housing associations, which are non-profit making, are now the main providers of additional low-cost housing for rent and for sale to those on low incomes and in the greatest housing need. The housing association sector is expanding rapidly and providing homes for well over a million people.

Homelessness

7

In 1993, there were half a million homeless people in Britain. In the early 1990s, when the country was going through an economic boom and housing prices was rising, people buy their houses. At that time, a lot of people lost their jobs and can’t afford the monthly mortgage payments. This fact made them be in debt as well as homeless.

Charitable organizations and local council provide place to live for most homeless families and single people. Thousands of single people simply live on the streets, where they 'sleep rough'.

Solving the problem of homelessness is not a political priority for the British government, because there are a lot of reasons. The homeless are those with personal problems which make it difficult for them to settle down in many cases or they are people who simply don 't want to 'settle down' and who wouldn't class themselves as homeless.

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