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These same four decades you used began with the end of a busy post-war building era, necessary to compensate for zero building through the WWII years and just after them. After that then the numbers of annual new builds were exceptionally high.
The graph I posted indicates a recovery in recent years (increased house building) but that has not been enough to deal with new high demand, which is far higher than before 1997, with much of that difference due to an extra 200,000 people a year coming in to the UK, This is a major factor and should be acknowledged.
Yes there has been high house price inflation, especially after 1997, all partly due to low interest rates, environmental protection laws, plus local areas resisting rising congestion.
Yes, agree, lack of social (council) housing - the discounted sale of council houses to tenants worked well for many but the effect of that has dissipated and new build social housing has been inadequate