More houses is what will fix housing. Millions of them. Ideally with a fair amount of that own by councils and unable to be sold for, say, 20 years, if not longer.
That’s why we’re doing it. The majority of people prefer a housing shortage and a terrible distribution of what we do have.
No, but it’ll make the cronies richer, and that’s what truly matters
The Tories have been promising to build more housing since 2010. They have built none since 2010.
The truth is we need a multi-pronged approach. There needs to be serious housebuilding done at a scale that likely means the government needs to get involved and build many itself without long term profit considerations getting in the way of building.
However the libertarians have a good point (stopped clocks being right twice a day and all that): planning is too restrictive. And around major cities like London, that probably does mean that we have to give up some green belt land. People need to live where there are jobs. You can’t just stick them on some brown field or ex business park site in the middle of nowhere with no amenities and consider it a job done.
We also need to be promoting things that enable people to work out of cities: namely WFH. The drive to push people back into cities for work is a drive towards misery. This won’t work for everyone, but it does also have the positive effect of allowing non-WFH businesses out of cities as WFH spend their money nearer to home.
Small groups also have far too much power to oppose new developments. The bar should also be much higher in terms of stopping new house building.
We should also put significant restrictions on second home ownership. If this puts a dent in landlordism then the government/councils will have to fill the void again. Holiday homes in particular are a disaster for many communities that have become ghost towns. We can’t have empty houses that exist for some rich person’s luxury to visit once every summer, this behaviour is putting a burden on others in the UK and it’s not fair.
Thatcherism doesn’t fix *anything* except for the bank balances of the 1%.
Trickle down economics is a con job.
Well in my town there’s an entire estate of 120 units that’s derelict.
For the the last 5 years there’s been a sign up saying the HA that owns it will demolish and rebuild 200 flats. They haven’t done it.
We need more houses. Houses need to be affordable, built well, be energy efficient and be built where people want them. Doing what we have been doing for decades now has got us nowhere, if we want things to change then we are actually going to have to do something different. It is the definition of insanity to keep trying the Thatcher approach otherwise.
Thatcherism is the disease that caused a housing crisis in the first place.
She was really a smart and shrewd woman.
House builders are allowed to push through vast new developments based on the housing list for people who are waiting for council houses.
The developers try en build expensive homes that are poorly built that the people in the housing list can’t afford to buy.
The houses they do build are really sub-standard for the modern world. This is because Cameron pulled the planned changes to building regulations so his developer mates could make more profit.
Villages are now doubling in size as huge new developments get approval, but the developers wriggle out of any Section 106 agreements that would require them to build things like new primary schools, doctors surgeries and other much needed services that are under strain due to these extra homes.
Councils are underfunded by government, so need more new homes to plug the funding gap, but that just makes it worse.
Many new developments are being built on prime agricultural land. You can check the Natural England land quality maps.
The road networks often can’t handle these new developments so that causes yet more problems.
People are being priced out of their local area and end up commuting to work, and drive past all the posh people commuting back in the opposite direction.
It’s total mess.
As for selling off more social housing, it will just make the situation worse. It will push house prices up further, while reducing the availability of social housing for the poor. That means private landlords can dominate the lower rent market, but drive up the rent prices due to lack of supply but high demand.
Thatcher really fucked up the housing situation in the U.K.
The only solution is mass building of sensible social housing and a ban on selling them.
Thatcherism is what caused this issue in the first place.
12 comments
More houses is what will fix housing. Millions of them. Ideally with a fair amount of that own by councils and unable to be sold for, say, 20 years, if not longer.
That’s why we’re doing it. The majority of people prefer a housing shortage and a terrible distribution of what we do have.
No, but it’ll make the cronies richer, and that’s what truly matters
The Tories have been promising to build more housing since 2010. They have built none since 2010.
The truth is we need a multi-pronged approach. There needs to be serious housebuilding done at a scale that likely means the government needs to get involved and build many itself without long term profit considerations getting in the way of building.
However the libertarians have a good point (stopped clocks being right twice a day and all that): planning is too restrictive. And around major cities like London, that probably does mean that we have to give up some green belt land. People need to live where there are jobs. You can’t just stick them on some brown field or ex business park site in the middle of nowhere with no amenities and consider it a job done.
We also need to be promoting things that enable people to work out of cities: namely WFH. The drive to push people back into cities for work is a drive towards misery. This won’t work for everyone, but it does also have the positive effect of allowing non-WFH businesses out of cities as WFH spend their money nearer to home.
Small groups also have far too much power to oppose new developments. The bar should also be much higher in terms of stopping new house building.
We should also put significant restrictions on second home ownership. If this puts a dent in landlordism then the government/councils will have to fill the void again. Holiday homes in particular are a disaster for many communities that have become ghost towns. We can’t have empty houses that exist for some rich person’s luxury to visit once every summer, this behaviour is putting a burden on others in the UK and it’s not fair.
Thatcherism doesn’t fix *anything* except for the bank balances of the 1%.
Trickle down economics is a con job.
Well in my town there’s an entire estate of 120 units that’s derelict.
For the the last 5 years there’s been a sign up saying the HA that owns it will demolish and rebuild 200 flats. They haven’t done it.
We need more houses. Houses need to be affordable, built well, be energy efficient and be built where people want them. Doing what we have been doing for decades now has got us nowhere, if we want things to change then we are actually going to have to do something different. It is the definition of insanity to keep trying the Thatcher approach otherwise.
Thatcherism is the disease that caused a housing crisis in the first place.
She was really a smart and shrewd woman.
House builders are allowed to push through vast new developments based on the housing list for people who are waiting for council houses.
The developers try en build expensive homes that are poorly built that the people in the housing list can’t afford to buy.
The houses they do build are really sub-standard for the modern world. This is because Cameron pulled the planned changes to building regulations so his developer mates could make more profit.
Villages are now doubling in size as huge new developments get approval, but the developers wriggle out of any Section 106 agreements that would require them to build things like new primary schools, doctors surgeries and other much needed services that are under strain due to these extra homes.
Councils are underfunded by government, so need more new homes to plug the funding gap, but that just makes it worse.
Many new developments are being built on prime agricultural land. You can check the Natural England land quality maps.
The road networks often can’t handle these new developments so that causes yet more problems.
People are being priced out of their local area and end up commuting to work, and drive past all the posh people commuting back in the opposite direction.
It’s total mess.
As for selling off more social housing, it will just make the situation worse. It will push house prices up further, while reducing the availability of social housing for the poor. That means private landlords can dominate the lower rent market, but drive up the rent prices due to lack of supply but high demand.
Thatcher really fucked up the housing situation in the U.K.
The only solution is mass building of sensible social housing and a ban on selling them.
Thatcherism is what caused this issue in the first place.