AD 1900-2000 Modern

Throughout the 20th century AD, south-east England maintained its position as the most prosperous and populous part of the country. Even in the economic depression of the 1920s and1930s, the expanding middle classes benefited from low inflation and cheap private housing. Many suburban and home-counties housing estates were built to cater for growing numbers of white-collar workers. Post-war new towns like Basildon and Harlow (Essex), Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) and Stevenage (Hertfordshire), continued the trend.

In the 1970s and 1980s unemployment in the south-east was lower than elsewhere and new industries were sited there. The region was well-served with the two major British airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, to be joined by Stansted in the 1990s. The closure of the London docks was balanced by the opening of deep port facilities at Tilbury.

In spite of repeated economic crises from the 1930s to the 1980s, the City of London managed to remain an international financial centre. The development of Dockland and the riversides in the 1980s and 1990s made London more attractive to investors and visitors. Sport, the arts and new architectural projects at the turn of the millennium, like the London Eye, kept London in the forefront of tourist attractions. However, the soaring cost of housing threatened to drive away key workers like nurses, teachers and police.