麻豆约拍

Lynsey Hanley looks at overcrowding in UK homes, telling the story of 30-year-old Dorine and her family in Crawley, West Sussex.

Every one of Britain's 27 million homes has a story to tell about Britain's housing crisis and how it might be fixed. Over ten episodes, Lynsey explores houses of every shape and size, new and old, right across the UK.

Today, the story of Dorine who lives in a two-bed flat in Crawley with her husband, three children and two sisters. She and her husband both worked at nearby Gatwick airport - until the pandemic severely affected the air travel industry.

Crawley New Town was a utopian solution to Britain's housing crisis just after the Second World War - but as Lynsey discovers, it's now just another manifestation of our current shortage of homes.

House historian Melanie Backe-Hansen explores the history of Crawley and Professor Paul Cheshire of the London School of Economics puts Dorine's situation in context. Professor Cheshire is a member of the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE.

Producer: Laurence Grissell