This podcast was produced and presented by Lee Millam

Lee Millam has lived in high-rise blocks of flats in London for years.  In this podcast he explores the highs and lows of living high up, and also asks whether high rise is a viable option for tackling current problems in the housing market.

Lee Millam:  I used to live on the 16th floor, then moved to my current flat which is on the 8th floor.

Even after all these years, I am still fascinated by how incredibly light my living space is. I love the views from the windows - and the sense of the whole city being below me. I watch the trains as they go in and out of the train station – they look like toys; the cars as they travel on the roads and people going about their business.

Up in my flat I get a different perspective on the way the city of London moves.

I wanted to know about other people’s experience of living up high. Firstly, though, I take you to The London School of Economics, to talk to Paul Cheshire, Professor of Economc Geography about the housing crisis.

Paul Cheshire: There is a housing crisis because we have been constantly not building enough houses for more than thirty years so we have a shortfall of building compared to what we should have been building in England of between 1.6 and 2.3 million houses.

The lack of building is a symptom of the problem.. But the root of the problem is our planning system. Simply, it does not permit you to build. And there is very little land; it is highly constrained with our urban containment boundaries around all our major cities - the Green-Belt covers nearly thirteen percent of England for example. But equally, we have height restrictions so you can’t build upwards either.

LM: And is this just a problem for London or is this a problem across the country?

PC: The housing is worst in London and the pressure on space is worst in London but it is a problem across the country; worst in the South East of England. Outside London, Oxford has the most expensive housing relative to incomes

Vox pops: I like living High up because, living in London, it is very hard to see horizons but when I come home, I can see a distance. I have a lot of light; I feel safer because I can leave my windows open without anyone coming in. But really it is the fact that I can see a long distance, and people can’t actually look into my flat. So there is a sense of space, a sense of freedom and a sense of privacy that I really enjoy.

Paul Cheshire : Basically the planning system zones so much land as off limits, you simply can’t build on it. Green-field land, or green-belt land, covers 13% of the surface of England, compared to cities which cover only 10% of the surface area of England. So all the people in England are crammed into ten percent of our space and we don’t allow any more. And as people get richer then they try to buy more space; they try to get better homes with bit of gardens and bigger rooms.

LM: But some of us are going to have to compromise, maybe live in flats?

PC: Of course, some people indeed want to live in flats, or flats can be very suitable for some people. But is it difficult to build them too because you can’t build high. And flats are much more effective and efficient if they are in relatively large chucks of housing construction.

Vox pop: I have been asked to say how I would feel about living in a high rise flat, and I definitely wouldn’t like it. I think the only advantage would be the view. But I think I would feel quite cut off from the rest of the world if I lived quite high up. I would see it as a barrier to the outside world because you can’t just open your front door and be outside and there is all the palaver of using the stairs, and having to depend on the lift. And I could get quite scared,