5. Mapping the impact of new dwelling additions in London Boroughs

If we are to understand why increasing numbers of people are being squeezed out of London, we need to look at the changing physical and economic landscape of the city itself. This map attempts to represent the supply and demand for housing for each year by mapping the number of new dwellings built, the number of these that are so called ‘affordable housing’, and the average number of persons per dwelling (suggesting the level of overcrowding) for each borough. Of particular interest is the amount of affordable housing being built, as this this kind of housing is necessary to sustain the population of lower earning Londoners who are unable to keep up with London’s soaring rental prices.

Each London borough is a coloured tile with the colour designating the housing desnity (darker orange meaning more dense dwellings). The height of the blue towers represents the total number of new dwellings added and they are shaded a daker blue to designate the proportion of these which are affordable housing'. Thus the towers display two sets of information in one graph. The information pop-up in the top right provides some quick statistics for each borough if a more in-depth comparison is desired. While the overall number of housing has increased in this time, the percentage of new builds being ‘affordable’ has dropped sharply towards the end, with 2016 and 2017 being particularly low years. Meanwhile the rate of overcrowding continues to rise steadily year on year, with a slight drop in 2017 giving some hope for the future. Whilst new building additions has shot up, density hasn’t really decreased. Perhaps then the new housing is remaining empty. This suggests that the volume of affordable housing being built is not reaching demand and the result is that people will continue to be forced to move out from London.