Elaine He, Columnist

Britain's Housing Crunch

Why Theresa May needs more public housing.

October 4, 2017 at 12:12 PM UTC

Elaine He is Bloomberg Opinion's data visualization editor. Before joining Bloomberg, she was a graphics editor at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

1507118654_GettyImages-3071155 — Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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British Prime Minister Theresa May is breaking with one of her predecessor Margaret Thatcher's signature policies: getting local authorities out of the housing market.

Instead, she's pledged an additional 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) to encourage councils to build more homes that can be rented at below-market rates. These charts show why she had little choice but to revive the council house.