Double-digit inflation prompted by a regional war. Essential goods in short supply in the shops. Shortages of workers. In some respects the economy when Charles III is crowned king this week has distinct echoes of his mother’s coronation 70 years ago.
In other respects, Britain is an entirely different place. In 1953, the retreat from empire was under way, the welfare state was in its infancy and membership of the European Economic Community was two decades away.
So what are the differences – and similarities – between the Britain of 2023 and the one of seven decades ago?
1 Growth and living standards
The contrast between today’s stagnant economy and the optimism that accompanied the rapid expansion of the early 1950s could hardly be more marked. The new Elizabethan Age got off to a rip-roaring start, with 1953 witnessing growth of 5.4% – the highest of the 1950s. It wasn’t just Britain; the world economy was in the early stages of a sustained postwar boom that would go on uninterrupted until the early 1970s. Despite the flatlining of real incomes in recent years, Britain is a much richer country today – and a much more service-sector dominated economy – than it was in 1953. Manufacturing accounted for a third of the economy compared with less than 10% today, while living standards are 4.5 times higher than they were seven decades ago.
2 Quality of life
As well as being richer, people also live longer. The average life expectancy at the time of Elizabeth II’s coronation was just over 69, but it rose steadily over the subsequent decades to peak at more than 81 by the early 2010s, since when it has declined slightly. Infant mortality has fallen from 29 per 1,000 live births to 3.7 per 1,000. At the start of the 1950s fewer than half the homes in Britain had a bathroom. Air quality has improved as use of coal as fuel has fallen. Six months before the 1953 coronation, London was gripped by the Great Smog, when thousands were killed by the pollution trapped by cold weather and a lack of wind. Rationing of sugar was still in force until September 1953 and it took until the following year for limits on purchases of meat to be lifted. Only one-third of working age women had jobs in the early 1950s compared with just under 73% today.
3 Bricks and mortar
Back in 1953, it was possible to buy a house for the monthly cost of servicing some mortgages today. According to the Nationwide building society, the average cost of a home in the UK now stands at just over £260,000 – 130 times as much as the average property price 70 years ago. Higher levels of owner-occupation have resulted in wealth becoming less concentrated, with the share owned by the top 1% falling from just under 50% to just over 20%. But the chances of young people following their parents and grandparents on to the housing ladder have been hit by a combination of high prices and limited supply. In 1953, almost 327,000 new homes were completed, of which more than two-thirds were built by local authorities. In 2020, the last year for which official figures are available, completions stood at 170,000, of which only 2,630 were local authority-built.
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4 Technology
For many people, the 1953 coronation was their first experience of TV, although they probably had to go round to a neighbour’s house to watch the black-and-white footage on a tiny screen on the only TV channel then available. Fewer than 2m homes had a TV set at the start of 1953, but the coronation prompted strong demand for sets, paving the way for the launch of the first commercial channel two years later. For a generation that has grown up with smartphones and streaming services, the technology of the early 1950s would seem rudimentary. It was a time when only 10% of households had a telephone, and music was listened to on the radio or on gramophones playing 78rpm discs. There were no such things as personal computers.
5 The public finances and tax
Taxes were high in 1953 but not as high as they are today. According to figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility, government revenues as a share of national output (gross domestic product) hit a postwar peak of 43.3% in the late 1940s and had come down to 38% by 1953-54 and were on course to drop below 34% by the start of the 1960s. Receipts in 2023-24 are expected to total 41.1% of GDP, rising slightly over the coming years. The national debt – the accumulation of government borrowing down the years – had risen sharply during the second world war and peaked at just over 250% of GDP in 1946-47. By 1953-54, it was just over 152% of GDP, still considerably higher than the 103% pencilled in by the OBR for 2023-24. Government spending on defence stood at 11% of GDP during the Korean war while health spending was 3% of GDP. Today those figures have been reversed: health spending is 11% of GDP, defence spending 2% of GDP.