Decisions, decisions. ‘Scottish’ Labour have gone very quiet on their variable support/discouragement of trials of rent caps in several areas of Scotland. I wonder who will win, party donors or some desire to begin to alleviate the problems across the UK?
While housing is seen as an investment rather than a utility, we all suffer.
At least two short-term let operators charge nearly £150 per night on Airbnb for flats in the new-build Dargavel scheme, beside Bishopton, Renfrewshire – where plans for 93 new council houses were scrapped last year.
With the recent conversations about the Royal Family (Britain unfortunately) I was, with a little time to kill having to work on a document this Saturday morning, pondering the term ‘Council Tenant’. It seems ridiculous to have had to add ‘that is perfectly ok’ to my comments.
But Thatcher and the Tories managed to make it necessary - just like using public transport, it has become in many minds something to be pitied.
An entertaining and insightful history of social housing in the UK. Including how Thatcher's 'right to buy' empowered the same kind of predatory slumlords that social housing was intended to protect working people from, and resulted in people working hard to buy their flat, only to be evicted and given a pittance when the tower blocks their homes were part of were under-maintained and then condemned.
Just a reminder. Scotland and Wales removed this STUPID policy years ago. An easy example of sanity being brought to bear with devolved assemblies. Roll on independence.
That some families in London have been in temporary accommodation for over a decade is a sad but clear indicator of the costs of a failure to (re)build the country's social housing... there is an appalling impact on children's development, but also a massive cost to Council budgets, money that would have been better spent on building homes.
Of course, the private providers of accommodation are laughing all the way the bank.
For the occupants, a rental home is a home.... for their landlord its an asset that they want to be able to maximise the rent on (by kicking out current tenants & upping the rent), or be able to sell quickly when they want to realise some capital.
The problem is that for the landlord this looks like good capital management, but for the (erstwhile) tenant it can often be the prelude to #homelessness.
With adequate supply of #socialhousing this would not be the problem it has become....
A new Shelter/National Housing Federation report argues that investing around £12bn on building 90,000 #socialhousing units would see a positive return within 11 years.
Getting people into homes would reduce benefits costs, save the #NHS money & more likely see those in proper homes (back) in #work. It would also, of course, boost employment in construction & associated trades.
The paradox for UK #politics is while a long time horizon is acceptable for #nuclear#energy, for homes, not so much!
How many homes does the UK need to build to address the #Housingcrisis?
To be clear, of course, that not all the crisis is just about supply... there are issues of #socialhousing provision & #inequality wrapped up in the crisis too, so more building has to be part of a bigger strategic response.
But, nonetheless looking at international comparisons of dwellings per capita will give us some indication.
And the shortfall looks to be growing against international (OECD country) norms!
Aha, so the crisis in #socialhousing isn't about the number of homes, its about the 'rule-breakers' disrupting an otherwise working system..... welcome (back) to the world of #Tory policy where there are only two types of person the worthy & the unworthy.
Like 'benefits cheats' a small minority are going to be used as a weapon to continue to ensure provision is both limited & callous!
📖 As a result of his doctoral research at the IHC, Diogo Duarte has published an article on #Anarchism, #PublicOrder and #SocialHousing in Portugal in the first half of the 20th century.
After 15 #Housing Ministers since 2010, and the chaos of #Tory housing 'policy' is it any surprise that in a survey of 50 major housebuilding firms suggests around 70% now favour a Labour Govt. after the next election.
The Q.is whether this merely means that the private sector housing lobby think they have Labour stitched up... because if they do, its unlikely they'll be supporting a massive expansion of #socialhousing
Equally it may be atop that NIMBYs have less sway with #KeirStarmer...
There are at least two clear reasons why #Vienna is so often voted one of the most liveable cities in the world:
the defining logic of the city is: 'is this good for children' in stead of 'is this good for property developers'?
When awarding planning permission Vienna's planners requires 50% 'affordable housing' in all new urban developments, not the much lower ratios elsewhere.
Short-term rentals and property speculation are driving rent increases in cities across the globe, but Vienna has found a different path. This city, renowned for its livability, offers tenants rents a fraction of those in Paris, London, or Dublin, thanks to a unique housing policy that prioritizes affordability.
We can agree that the #housingcrisis is being made worse by the lack of affordable & #socialhousing..... so the news that Housing Associations are planning to reduce their spend in 2024 rather than increasing construction is worrying;
in the decade to 2022, there was a net loss of 165,000 social homes; now is not the time to scaling back construction.
The HA's are reducing consgtruction in the face of #inflation, high #interestrates & required repairs.
The problems with a lack of #socialhousing are pretty clear, but another aspect of concern is the contempt with which some social #landlords treat their tenants and the lack of interest the Housing Ombudsman has in sanctioning those landlords.
What social housing needs is both more building, but also a social shift away from contempt for those who inhabit these homes.
This is just another aspect of the continued divisive role of #classism in British #politics
The #Tories have chosen to poor money into a failing #migration policy & funnel much of the money to #Rwanda to deport a small number of #refugees.... in an inhumane & callous set of policies.
This is the mural Chez Nous by Québec artist Cecile Gariepy which you can catch just a glimpse of when you run along the Decarie Expressway.
I love this mural for itself but also for the fact that it celebrates the building of social housing.
Shelter expects that the numbers #homeless over this #Christmas will be up by around 14% year-on-year (and above 300,000 of which almost half are #children).
If we think we are a civilised country we need to do something about this, not blame the victims, not just hope that charities can pick up the slack, or that if we ignore it, it will go away.