@zipperlip; the UK's 'landed gentry' chose to inflate property values to create the illusion of wealth - not unlike what the Coalition has done in Australia.
Through encouraging immigration from Middle Eastern oil-rich jurisdictions they created wealth out of thin air that brought a broad smile to the faces of British Royalty and Tories in general.
The problem with their Ponzi property scheme was that most English Battlers didn't own property and were left even further behind than they were before the outbreak of WW1 and WW2 - they're now a very long way behind indeed and living on struggle street.
The UK's a mess and it appears incredibly stupid Australia is doing what we did in WW1 and again in WW2 - bailing them out even after they turned their backs on us and joined the EU when it suited them. Now we get to prop up the UK via AUKUS by paying through the nose for them to build boats for our navy - very, very,very expensive ones!
