1988: Our House - Episode 3

This is Capitalism

How might a young couple, unable to buy their first home today, have fared in past decades? Tacita and Charlie are in their mid twenties. They live near Brighton on the south coast and are desperate to move in together. But buying somewhere in that part of the country is out of their reach. They believe earlier generations had it easier than they do. In the third of five programmes, Tacita and Charlie travel back to 1988. Unemployment was high, the result of the deep recession that had hit manufacturing businesses so hard, but credit was easier to come by than ever before; deregulation was full steam ahead. And house prices, in London and the South East, were climbing fast. Would a young couple, back then, have faced the same sort of difficulties Tacita and Charlie do today? The experts who guide our couple through 1988 are economist Jonathan Cribb from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Professor Sharon Collard from the University of Bristol and Professor Claire Langhamer from the University of Sussex.

Producers: Paul Kerley and Rosamund Jones