Homesick
How Housing Broke London and How to Fix It
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oneworld Publications
Publishing:25th Sep '25
£18.99
This title is due to be published on 25th September, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

What - and who - is a city for?
What – and who – is a city for?
From the author of the Orwell Prize-winner SHOW ME THE BODIES: HOW WE LET GRENFELL HAPPEN, the gripping story of how housing defines a city's past, present and future
'Apps set the gold standard with his Grenfell coverage. With Homesick, he dismantles the sham of UK housing policy – razor-sharp, stylish, and morally unflinching.' Darren McGarvey
London is broken. Only those with vast cash deposits can get on the property ladder, private rents have spiralled out of control and the wait for social housing is measured in decades. Once vibrant communities are being uprooted, schools are closing down and homelessness is rampant.
It was not always like this. In the 1980s, builders and nurses could afford family-sized homes, there was abundant social housing and long-term security for private renters.
Tracing the last forty years of housing policy, Peter Apps examines this transformation, following a diverse group of Londoners as their fortunes rise and fall across the decades amid the economic forces sweeping through the city. With clear-eyed urgency, he reveals what will happen when a generation of renters retires and climate change brings fire and flood to a city unprepared for extremes.
He also gives us reason to hope, exploring the ways London can transform again: from a market for private profit to a place that once more offers permanence, safety and opportunity for its citizens. A place to call home.
'Apps set the gold standard with his Grenfell coverage. With Homesick, he dismantles the sham of UK housing policy – razor-sharp, stylish, and morally unflinching.' —Darren McGarvey, author of Poverty Safari
'All of life is here – you will laugh, cry and learn from reading Peter Apps. Take this book, put it on the curriculum and turn it into government policy.' —Vicky Spratt, author of Tenants
'A vital book which underscores the human cost of the housing crisis with a forensic analysis of how we got there. Peter Apps is one of the most important writers on housing today.' —Anna Minton, author of Big Capital
‘I don’t think there is anyone else out there capable of writing a book on housing with such quality, depth and humanity. The book is detailed and informative but always readable – the analysis and arguments are convincing; the personal accounts are relevant, enlightening and at times heartbreaking.’ —John Boughton, author of Municipal Dreams
'An erudite, careful, plausible, and heartfelt call for change, for building sensibly on the greenbelt, and for the far more efficient use of London’s existing stock including the house-in-every-street, small scale, flat-by-flat, nationalization (aka municipalization) of enough homes in London to make the capital liveable and social again, not just a place for servants and those whose parents gift them property.' —Danny Dorling, author of Seven Children
'Pete Apps’ enlightening account of how we got to where we are and how we might get out is a tour de force of storytelling and analysis.' —Gillian Slovo, author of Ice Road
'Homesick relates the social, political and economic history of social housing in London since the 1980s. It is threaded through with narratives of real people and the changing picture of affordability and availability over the years. It is beautifully written, hugely knowledgeable and informative – the history of government finance for housing and its drivers was a revelation. Every historian, housing provider and politician must read this book, hang their heads in shame, and work for fundamental and radical change.' —Emma Dent Coad, former MP for Kensington and author of One Kensington
'An essential, epic love letter packed with hope for what housing was, should be and could be again. Apps is a skilled storyteller albeit every word is real and meticulously researched. This is the definitive account of how London's relationship with house and home went wrong.A must-read' —Lucy Easthope, author of When the Dust Settles
'Homesick is a powerful elegy to the relative affordability and security of housing in the London of Apps’ childhood. His superb account of its systematic unravelling is rooted in the intimate experiences of everyday Londoners, across different time periods, spaces, and tenures... A must-read for governments and the wider public in the UK, and beyond.' —Loretta Lees, author of Gentrification
ISBN: 9781836430360
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
352 pages