Reflective Essay on Income Inequality and Housing in the UK

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Individual Reflection
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Reflection...................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion and Future Actions..................................................................................................7
Reference List............................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Two different issues that are occurring in the UK - the first one is about The Impact of
Global Income Inequality on the Housing Market in the UK while the second one is about
how Higher average incomes do not necessarily mean an improvement in average
citizen's well-being. In this assignment, I am going to reflect on my experience of writing
these two different essays. Gibb’s Reflective Cycle will be used in order to present and justify
my reflection on writing these two essays. Gibb’s Reflective Cycle consists of six stages of
reflection (Husebo et al., 2015). The first stage of reflection is the descriptive stage where an
explanation of what I have written is provided and how it relates to each other. The second
stage will describe my feelings that I had when writing these two essays. The third stage is
the Evaluation stage where I will present my viewpoints about what went good or bad about
my essay writing experience and my reaction to it. The fourth stage is the Analysis stage
which will help me explain all the obstacles I have faced while writing my essays and this
will also include my reactions and thoughts about the essays I have written. The next stage is
the Conclusion stage where I will describe what extra things I could have done to improve
my essays. This stage will help me reflect about what I have accomplished by writing these
essays and what I could have also done to improve my work. The final stage of this model is
the Action Plan which describes the things I need to do in order to write better essays the next
time such a situation comes up.
I have chosen Gibb’s Reflection Model as the framework to present a reflection on writing
two different essays because I feel it provides the most efficient framework to provide and
develop my reflection. It is simple and easy to understand. All the six stages that this model
provides help me to approach my reflective writing structure.
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Reflection
After writing essays on two different topics - The Impact of Global Income Inequality on the
Housing Market in the UK and Higher average incomes do not necessarily mean an
improvement in average citizen's well-being, Gibb’s Reflective Cycle is used below to
demonstrate the structure and process of my reflection on writing these essays.
Figure 1: Gibb’s Reflective Cycle
(Source: Tanaka et al., 2018)
Description
I have written two different essays for this assignment that explain in detail the effect of
income inequality in the UK. The first essay deals with the income inequality that is present
all over the world. Poor people are getting poorer every day while the rich keep on getting
richer. The rich want to lead a lavish lifestyle with the money they have earned. When they
are from developing countries, they do not get to enjoy that opportunity because developing
countries do not provide that luxurious opportunities. Thus, these people come to the UK,
especially London to enjoy the luxurious lifestyles that people of this country are associated
with. Since most people who earn low to moderate income, are forced to rent apartments
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instead of buying one of their own due to their lack of necessary funds. This has increased the
demand for houses and apartments in London and the UK, due to which their prices have
skyrocketed. The foreign investors have taken advantage of this and have bought properties
in the country, especially in London for the purpose of renting them and earning good
revenues (Edwards, 2016). This is the way foreigners have started their housing business in
the country.
After writing this essay, I wrote another essay that deals with the well-being of people who
have higher average income. I emphasised on the statement that higher income does not mean
more happiness because that is dependent on the mindset of the people.
Feelings
While writing the first essay, I felt that housing prices really have increased quite a lot. My
personal experience in London tells me the exact same thing where I saw that decent
apartments cost a lot. Even their rents are exorbitant, especially for a college student or even
for a person with decent income. This has forced me to re-think about the economic
conditions of the people living in London and also about the conditions of people not living
in London. The result was that the people not living in London earned significantly less. They
even paid house rent that was cheap compared to the rent for a similar apartment in London.
This gave me thoughts about how happy rich people would be leading a luxurious lifestyle
and living in the city of London. Then, I thought about the fact that money does not mean
happiness. In fact, richer people also go through a lot of difficulties and turmoil in their lives.
This prompted me to write another report based on how earning more would not necessarily
bring in happiness. Due to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a person, people can
think in two different ways. One might think that since he or she has earned so much money,
he or she can spend it without consequence and will be happy. Another person might realise
the importance of wealth and the responsibilities that come with it and will spend money
along with saving it as per his or her income. The UK is one of the most luxurious countries
due to its developments (Atkinson and Jenkins, 2019). This has prompted foreigners to come
and live in the UK. Most of these immigrants are not well off financially, a reason for them to
come to the nation for quality education and the opportunity to generate income. This is
because in developing countries all around the globe, there are a lot of issues with the quality
of sanitation, health, and education. In developing countries, the rich get richer because they
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can afford to have their children studying in good schools and in turn get good jobs; this is
not the same for the poor (Pickett and Wilkinson,2015).
Evaluation
While I was writing these essays, I had to research a lot about the impacts of income
inequality to people all over the world, and especially on the housing problem that is
prevalent in London due to mass immigration of foreigners (Cao and Hickman, 2018). While
I was researching about the plight of poor people in developing countries, I was actually able
to sympathise more with their condition. This made want to do something for them to
improve their condition. Fortunately, everything went without a hitch and I was able to write
my essays in time. When I was writing my essay, I found that I was going beyond my word
count for each essay. This prompted me to lower my word count for each essay. This was no
easy task as most of the points that I have made in the essays are of importance. Still, I was
able to lower my word count by keeping the information provided in the essays to be of
utmost key importance to the topics of each essay. I was able to write these essays properly
by following the guidance and instructions provided by my tutors.
Analysis
After I finished writing these essays, I felt that money is a very important thing that should
not be treated without any kind of responsibility. It is true that housing prices have increased
in London but this does not necessarily mean that all houses are luxurious and have the same
rent. Thousands of apartments in London that are relatively cheaper due to the obvious
degradation of quality. But the fact remains true that these houses are just houses after all;
people might find happiness living in luxurious houses but true happiness comes from
spending quality time with friends and family. This was another reason that prompted me to
write the second essay that shows the relationship between happiness and wealth. It is true
that happiness comes from having high income but that is only a part of it. Happiness comes
from properly spending your income and making necessary savings (Matz et al., 2016).
After writing these essays, I felt that I have written good essays that elaborate in detail the
housing problems that are rising in London due to inequalities present in the UK and all over
the globe along with the effect of higher average income on the lifestyle and happiness of
people. I also kept my essays free of any kind of plagiarism and also have given proper
evidential references wherever necessary. This has helped me understand the importance of
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academic integrity. I believe that the next time I write essays, I will be better able to stick to
my word count. This will allow me to only research about the key points of my topic and also
present them better in the form of an essay.
Conclusion
Writing these essays helped me to understand the importance of wealth. Researching about
these topics helped me to find a way that will allow me to decrease my expenses and increase
my savings. I have also made proper references wherever necessary and presented plagiarism
free essays. As mentioned before, this allowed me to understand the importance and necessity
of maintaining academic integrity in my work. The steps that I have taken to research about
these topics allowed me to develop my researching skills.
Action Plan
When I will write more essays in the future, it will be of great importance to make sure that
do not exceed my word limit every time. I also wish to make sure to improve my writing
skills and learn new words from the English dictionary so that I can write better essays in the
future.
Conclusion and Future Actions
From writing these essays and this reflection, it can be concluded that I have gained
significant knowledge on many different areas like writing good essays and writing a proper
reflection of it. With the knowledge gained from writing essays, I will be able to write better
and more cohesive essays in the future. While writing these essays, I understood the
importance of maintaining my time. This forced me to allocate my timings in necessary
sequences so that no time is wasted during my day. Presenting all the essays on time made
me realise the importance of time. I have also learned the meaning of maintaining my
academic integrity while performing my tasks. I have learned the proper use of evidential
referencing in my work along with the ability to keep it plagiarism and collusion free.
Writing this essay without any form of plagiarism made me approach and write this essay be
effectively understanding my source materials and writing the information from those sources
in a different way so that they are not the same. I also have not done any form of collusion as
I am well aware that doing so will not maintain my academic integrity and will also not help
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me improve my academic skills. I will have no issues in the future to write reflective essays
as I have gained experience from writing this.
I have made a plan to develop my writing skills and researching skills for the future with help
and guidance from my tutors and seniors. Properly researching about the topics of my essays
cost me a great deal of time as I was researching ineffectively in the wrong way. But
researching more and more helped me understand necessary tricks of researching faster so
that researching the next time becomes easier. Referencing was also difficult at first but I
soon got the flow of it. But I believe that my proper referencing skills are still lacking and I
need to improve it greatly. These essays also helped me understand the value of money more
as now I prefer saving my money for better and more productive uses in the future.
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Reference List
Atkinson, A.B. and Jenkins, S.P., 2019. A different perspective on the evolution of UK
income inequality. Review of Income and Wealth.
Cao, M. and Hickman, R., 2018. Car dependence and housing affordability: An emerging
social deprivation issue in London?. Urban Studies, 55(10), pp.2088-2105.
Edwards, M., 2016. The housing crisis and London. City, 20(2), pp.222-237.
Husebø, S.E., O'Regan, S. and Nestel, D., 2015. Reflective practice and its role in
simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), pp.368-375.
Matz, S.C., Gladstone, J.J. and Stillwell, D., 2016. Money buys happiness when spending fits
our personality. Psychological science, 27(5), pp.715-725.
Pickett, K.E. and Wilkinson, R.G., 2015. Income inequality and health: a causal
review. Social science & medicine, 128, pp.316-326.
Tanaka, M., Okamoto, R. and Koide, K., 2018. Relationship between Reflective Practice
Skills and Volume of Writing in a Reflective Journal. Health, 10(03), p.283.
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