Despite rent controls, landlords were still able to capitalise on an increased demand for housing during WW2. There was also a slowdown in house building as 2/3 of the skilled building force had been enlisted, while the remainder worked solely on government contracts. Due to the war effort, there was also a shortage of building supplies.

During the blitz, 218,000 houses were destroyed across the UK and a further 250,000 houses needed important repairs. When the war ended, 3.5m ex-servicemen were demobilised, and a baby boom put further pressures on housing. (Watson 2016)

At the start of the blitz, underground stations were Aylesbury Estate Rubble locked in order to prevent people from sheltering there. It was only after Communist Party activists squatted a station in September 1940 in order to shelter local people from the bombs that it became government policy to use the tube as public shelter 1 month later. Party activists also occupied the luxury air raid shelter at The Savoy Hotel in order to make a point about the unequal access people had to shelter and safety across the city.

According to research at Kings'College London, there has been a net loss of 4000 homes in London through regeneration schemes since 2003. 8000 more homes are set to be lost in London through regeneration schemes over the next decade.

Southwark has been on of the hardest hit boroughs, with a 624 net loss since 2003, and a further 2196 net loss in the pipeline.

As part of emergency war measures in 1939, local authorities were given powers to requisition properties as hospitals, offices, and worker housing. In the face of the blitz, these powers were then extended in August 1943 to allow authorities to requisition, repair, and adapt empty properties 'for persons at present inadequately housed'. However, this policy had little effect, given that councils had to seek owner permission first, who quickly developed fictitious tenancies, organised hasty sales, or simply moved back into large properties that could have housed many more people.

In July 1945, a group of ex-servicemen in Brighton moved their families into empty hotels (where landlords were speculating on post-war holiday rents). Known as The Vigilantes, this action put pressure on the council and government to extend requisitioning powers into peacetime. In one of the last acts of the wartime coalition, they announced that properties could be requisitioned for housing until the end of 1945, giving owners only 14-days notice.

Pointing out that Kensington & Chelsea,despite being the richest borough in the UK, has some of the highest levels of residential vacancy; Jeremy Corbyn controversially argued in June 2017 that empty houses should be requisitioned to accommodate survivors from the Grenfell Tower fire.

Despite the election of the first Labour majority in July 1945 - with promises of improving health, education and housing - little had changed a year later. The new Minister of Health, Nye Bevan, was committed to improving housing for the working classes as well as growing the stock, and therefore reluctant to use temporary alternatives (such as pre-fab housing). However, this made progress incredibly slow, and by August 1946 the majority of local authorities had not completed a single council house, with some carrying 7-8 year waiting lists.

In May 1946, a Scunthorpe projectionist named James Fielding (who had been living in the cinema where he worked) moved his family to a local abandoned radar base. An interview with Fielding was then shown in cinemas nationwide and sparked a national movement. By the end of September, the Home Secretary reported that 931 camps had been occupied by an estimated 40,000 squatters across England and Wales.

Squatting the service camps was portrayed in the media as'robust common sense' and as continuing 'blitz spirit' of self-determinism and pragmatism. The squatters also found support from the Communist Party, from some within the Labour Party, and even from right-wing media (such as The Daily Mail) who were keen to frame the action as representing the failure of socialist housing.
The political reaction varied across the country, but many of the squatted camps had their services reconnected and began to develop communities. Whilst not wanting to encourage squatting, the government had nevertheless been forced to recognise that many people simply had no alternative. Some of these camps, despite being in a poor condition, continued to be used as housing into the mid-1950s.

A flag flew over Manor Lane gun site in Sheffield yesterday evening. The squatters had won a day-long battle with city officials against removal to the workhouse from their Nissen huts. Earlier hundreds of people lined the roads leading to the camp to watch the arrival of police, aldermen and officials. With them came two double decker-buses, an ambulance, police radio cars, and two lorry loads of demolition workmen. Men, women and children met the eviction party at the gates, and listened while Alderman F. Thraves, Socialist leader of the City Council, tried to persuade them to leave in their own interests. Women shouted: 'We're not going to the workhouse. Our men didn't fight to go to the workhouse. How would you like to take your wife to Firvale?' Deadlock was reached when the foreman of the demolition gang said his men refused to pull down the huts unless the people in them were found somewhere else to live. (Daily Mail 1946)

On 8th September 1946, Communist Party councillors led 1000 people to squat luxury flats at the Duchess of Bedford House, Kensington. The apartments had been requisitioned during the war and offered back to the council to use as housing, but they had declined(preferring instead to return the flats to the market).

What became known as The Great Sunday Squat also saw overflow occupations in Marylebone, Regent's Park, Buckingham Palace Road, and the Ivanhoe Hotel, as well as unfulfilled plans to occupy Kensington Palace.

In comparison to the Home Front Squatters, both the government and the media saw the squatting of luxury flats as one step too far. Yet the cabinet also wanted to show sympathy for the housing situation of the poor. After arresting 5 leaders under a 14thC law 'Conspiracy to Trespass'; the government nevertheless found alternative accommodation for the squatters and promised their position on the waiting list would not be affected.

Today, there are at least 20,000 homes across London and 205,000 homes across England &Wales that have been empty for over 6 months. (Empty Homes Agency 2017).