North East Housing Crisis: The Disaster Of Declining House Prices As The North/South Divide Takes Its Toll.

In the top 500 UK neighbourhoods where house prices have risen most, only 21 were outside of London revealing a further increase in the injustice of the North/South divide since 2007 in England and Wales.

Figures from the Land Registry reveal that North Ormesby in Middlesbrough, is the least expensive ward in the country, whereas affluent areas such as Belgravia or Knightsbridge in London faced huge price increases over the last decade. Research shows a clear market failure in this deprived neighbourhood.

The recent census shows that the proportion of workless households in the population, Middlesbrough has some of the highest rates of poverty in the UK; as it is more than double the national rate. There is a difference of 13.1% between the local and national figures and 42% of families in North Ormesby are unemployed.

As an example of the divide: at £2.9m, for an average home in the most expensive ward – Knightsbridge and Belgravia; this would cost the same as 80 homes in North Ormesby.

Since the onset of the current UK financial crisis, the average house price in North Ormesby has plummeted by 60% to just £36,000 which exposes not only deprivation but the north/south divide as growth in property values has been restricted to only the South East and East of England.

The North East of England has suffered the most in the housing market with a 95% price decrease since 2007.

“The root problem was the largescale selling off of council housing stock, which has ultimately fallen into the hands of a small number of private landlords,” North Ormesby Councillor Lewis Young said, “North Ormesby has become a destination of last resort for many people – often with several serious socio-economic / underlying health issues, which further exacerbates need for services and entrenches the issue further.”

The Middlesbrough Evening Gazette say the top 10 cheapest homes sold off in October include 2 from North Ormesby and 1 in central Middlesbrough with 6 out of the 10 based in Hartlepool.

The standard of living in Middlesbrough is a key aspect of the issue, Lewis Miller elaborated:

“Middlesbrough Council has implemented Selective Landlord Licensing which sees every private landlord licensed per property. We’re working to bring housing standards up, tackle the failure in the market in several ways and tackle issues of low educational attainment, community regeneration, health concerns. All these will contribute to overall regeneration of North Ormesby – which is community led – and should have a positive knock on impact on the standards in its housing stock.”

From speaking to homeowners in Teesside, it is clear how the housing crisis is currently affecting the area. One Teesside homeowner, Jane said:

It seems the fall in house prices in the North East is in fact, the cruelest cut for an impoverished and unemployed workforce highlighting once more, this pernicious and unjust North/South divide.