England, like the United States, is currently undergoing a housing crisis. There's just not enough houses over there to satisfy demand. It's gotten bad enough that people are exploiting ancient Roman laws in order to seize what little stock there is left:
They're also apparently blaming ancient English leaders for their problems as well!
When William the Conqueror was shaping his new kingdom in 1066, the plight of 5 million leaseholders a thousand years in the future wasn't even a distant consideration.
But fast forward to today, and property owners across the country are bearing the brunt of the Norman king's legacy.
"Bearing the brunt ..."
Reading "the decisions of a king in 1066 affect housing stock in Great Britain today" like:
So, apparently, after William the Conqueror tied things up at Hastings and ascended to the throne, he set about making a few, ah, changes: "Every inch of land was confiscated and the entire kingdom soon belonged to the new monarch." (No biggie.)
The land-rich king "split most of the land to 170 of his loyal nobles and soldiers, while retaining overall ownership for the Crown." Landowners were then free to lease their land out to lowly peasants, thus "sparking the dawn of the leasehold system."
In a nutshell, a "leasehold" is when a buyer owns a property but not the land it rests on. They own everything inside the walls, but have to get permission to make many changes (essentially, it's like buying an apartment or condo).
That system has persisted for the last 10 centuries, but apparently people aren't happy about it anymore:
Almost a millennium later and England and Wales are the only countries where leasehold is still widely used. The Government is trying to reform the laws at last - yet this could still be a long way down the road. In the meantime, buyers are now starting to 'avoid' flats with big service charge overheads following an increase in awareness of leasehold law.
The reason is all this inflation in our best world economy ever:
Prior to one of William I's archers shooting Harold Godwinson in the eye at the Battle of Hastings, England was divided up between a mosaic of landowners.
😂
All of this is very interesting but I'm reaaaallly not sure you can blame William the Conqueror for this anymore.
But with "racism" and "Christian nationalism" being stale excuses for the problems of society, I guess they have to trot out a new dead white guy to blame.
They've exhausted the list of white guys in recent history to pin the problems on, so now we're back in the Anglo-Saxon dark ages! Pretty soon, they'll be blaming England's problems on the Romans!
I'd be happy to see ancient feudal systems go as much as the next guy, but maybe the Telegraph needs to ask why this is suddenly so urgent after 1,000 years. Why has housing jumped over 60% in England, like it has across the Western world, since 2019 or so?
They're so close to getting it:
Regardless, I'm glad to be in the USA, where you own your own land as long as you don't forget to pay annual taxes on it!
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