Why Britain is the world’s worst on homelessness
Why Britain is the world’s worst on homelessness
Pretty depressing reading.
[Edit] I had the archive link as a comment but this has gained enough traction that it's not obvious. Here it is again so you don't have to give FT any clicks https://archive.is/ypkln
Unsurprising that it all shot out of control after 2010, and just more evidence that we need to build more.
This is something I'd wish the next government would do. Seriously how hard is it to build? Bust through the bullshit planning restrictions and build houses that people want to live in.
The house building companies already have vast amounts of land they own with planning permission in place. They restrict the amount of housing they build to artificially keep the prices high, if they build too many, the prices they could sell their houses for would drop, reducing profit. These are private companies and the government has little control over them. This is why every government for the last few generations has promised more houses and delivered nothing.
It's by design.
The rich want low housing and high population because it makes their assets go up. Traditionally like silent generation, greatest generation and before affordable homes for the working class and the following generations was seen as an ideal that people were willing to die for. This ideal was largely realised with the boomers.
But the boomers then decided it is better if they have houses and no one else does because their wealth can go up and they can then make money like the land owners than their grandparents were kept in poverty by. Now they can do it to their children!
I honestly don't think it will be solved until the boomers die. Even then I wouldn't count on it. Too much effort to keep population increasing no matter the cost.
If I was PM I would end up get voted out by doing something drastic like trying to put through a land value tax and building a new city 1mill+ city maybe between Hull and Leeds. Put a big fucking 200mph train line between Liverpool and Hull. Tell everyone to get fucked and steal some quotes from Churchill and JFK about going through hard time for the better of the country.
They simply don't want to. Construction company owners are some of the richest and ones who do the most lobbying to MPs.
Until we:
- Ban buy-to-let mortgages.
- Ban landlords from owning multiple houses.
- Invest into social housing and ban so-called "affordable housing" lettings.
We'll continue to be stuck in this downward spiral.
The problem is, everyone in power is a landlord or otherwise benefits from the current system, so nothing changes and we continue circling the drain as a society.
agree with this and would add that the privatisation of social housing needs to be ended by abolishing the right to buy before real investment into it can begin
An above average number of MPs are landlords but they're still a minority in the commons
We need to build more because this is about a Shelter piece on people having to live as families in a single hotel room rotating locations.
We aren't even at the point of private landlords being the problem and preventing people from buying, as there simply aren't enough houses for people
It's both
Paywall bypass link here:
I live in the 272nd most deprived area (out of 317).
New 4 bedrooms houses on horrible estates cost £850,000 because Londoners have moved here and commute from the nearest station.
Build the houses, make them actually affordable and only sell them to people who live or work in the local area.
surprised Canada isn't ranked worse
(without reading article) The answer presumably boils down to "the Tories".
Unfortunately the solutions are opposed by both sides, as lefties are arguing points about house building not reducing costs which doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
If we build a million McMansions, they won't sell for £500k+ due to oversupply.
"Affordable housing" is just basically building more at this point, the reason you can sell ex-council houses for over £300k is because, as the article you didn't read says, 1 in 200 are homeless due to insufficient housing.
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