Great article Hannah, I’ll be using the detail in this if it’s ok with my typical battles on LinkedIn. One thing you didn’t mention was prisoners on release needing housing covered by Zoe on the bunker. Another thing that will send the RW media apoplectic
There are so many hurdles to overcome to build the numbers of social houses that the country desperately needs to lift thousands of households out of temporary accommodation.
The most startling stat is how many people are eligible for social housing - the incomes that push households into the top 20% of earners. It tells an interesting story of who will benefit from the social homes Andy Burnham has promised to deliver.
Putting Rainer in charge of housing is worrying. Are we in for another round of blaming the blockers, blaming the planners, turning green belt grey? Who is doing the building? Housing Associations are now developers. They sell off their social housing to balance their books. Burnham will have had a degree of local control in Manchester. The housing market in London is a whole different kettle of fish. Building lots of homes in devastated cities after WW2 cannot be replicated. It's not just a case of building. Action needs to be taken on empty homes, removing council tax exemptions, creating new council tax bands and revaluing properties for council tax. Existing properties have to be brought into use with tax penalties.
Council housing is definitely the way forward. Some (too many) Housing Associations behave quite irresponsibly towards their tenants. Private renting is way beyond the ability of many to pay. But why are we talking of building when there are so many buildings, including houses, left to rot when they should be commandeered and modified to provide badly needed accommodation? And why are houses being built without the infrastructure to support them - particularly in regard to water? We need more reservoirs, more joined-up infrastructure and much less emphasis on profit, which lies behind many of this country's ills
I was born in a council house built by the Attlee government in 1948 when Britain was bankrupted by war. Lucky for me that no one bothered then about fiscal rules.
Great article Hannah, I’ll be using the detail in this if it’s ok with my typical battles on LinkedIn. One thing you didn’t mention was prisoners on release needing housing covered by Zoe on the bunker. Another thing that will send the RW media apoplectic
There are so many hurdles to overcome to build the numbers of social houses that the country desperately needs to lift thousands of households out of temporary accommodation.
The most startling stat is how many people are eligible for social housing - the incomes that push households into the top 20% of earners. It tells an interesting story of who will benefit from the social homes Andy Burnham has promised to deliver.
Putting Rainer in charge of housing is worrying. Are we in for another round of blaming the blockers, blaming the planners, turning green belt grey? Who is doing the building? Housing Associations are now developers. They sell off their social housing to balance their books. Burnham will have had a degree of local control in Manchester. The housing market in London is a whole different kettle of fish. Building lots of homes in devastated cities after WW2 cannot be replicated. It's not just a case of building. Action needs to be taken on empty homes, removing council tax exemptions, creating new council tax bands and revaluing properties for council tax. Existing properties have to be brought into use with tax penalties.
Council housing is definitely the way forward. Some (too many) Housing Associations behave quite irresponsibly towards their tenants. Private renting is way beyond the ability of many to pay. But why are we talking of building when there are so many buildings, including houses, left to rot when they should be commandeered and modified to provide badly needed accommodation? And why are houses being built without the infrastructure to support them - particularly in regard to water? We need more reservoirs, more joined-up infrastructure and much less emphasis on profit, which lies behind many of this country's ills
I was born in a council house built by the Attlee government in 1948 when Britain was bankrupted by war. Lucky for me that no one bothered then about fiscal rules.