Slums in London in 2012!

[TeaFan]

What if we don't want our taxes spent on more social housing to accomodate yet more immigrants!

 

Immigration is not the main cause of the shortage of social housing, the Right to Buy and the failure of successive governments to build new properties is. Sheffield has lost 50% of its Council housing to the Right to Buy, much of which is now rented out privately. I know the articles in the OP are about migrants but everyone is affected by the lack of good housing.

[MrSmith]

Immigration is not the main cause of the shortage of social housing, the Right to Buy and the failure of successive governments to build new properties is. Sheffield has lost 50% of its Council housing to the Right to Buy, much of which is now rented out privately. I know the articles in the OP are about migrants but everyone is affected by the lack of good housing.

 

But the people that bought them in many cases still live in them and they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to buy if it wasn’t for the right to buy, if they had never been sold there would still be a shortage of houses because there would be more people wanting them.

Labour on the other hand under the path finder project demolished thousands of houses, many council houses and even bought some back to demolish them. They didn’t build replacements and encouraged a massive increase in the population through immigration. Labour are entirely to blame for the shortage of houses and the unaffordability of houses.

[TeaFan]

But the people that bought them in many cases still live in them and they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to buy if it wasn’t for the right to buy, if they had never been sold there would still be a shortage of houses because there would be more people wanting them.

Labour on the other hand under the path finder project demolished thousands of houses, many council houses and even bought some back to demolish them. They didn’t build replacements and encouraged a massive increase in the population through immigration. Labour are entirely to blame for the shortage of houses and the unaffordability of houses.

 

I have no desire to exonerate Labour but your last sentence is nonsense. This thread is about low quality housing. The private sector is a problem because the minimum legal standard of it is so low, and unlike social landlords, private landlords are within their rights to evict tenants who either use the law to get repairs done or complain about the state of their property. It's a slumlord's charter. Decent properties in the private sector are out of the reach of people on low incomes and so they have a choice of trying to get social housing, which is difficult because there's not enough of it, or go into sub-standard private properties. Therefore the lack of social housing pushes people on lower incomes into lower quality private rented. All political parties are responsible for not replacing the stock of social housing over the last 40 years.

[MrSmith]

I have no desire to exonerate Labour but your last sentence is nonsense. This thread is about low quality housing. The private sector is a problem because the minimum legal standard of it is so low, and unlike social landlords, private landlords are within their rights to evict tenants who either use the law to get repairs done or complain about the state of their property. It's a slumlord's charter. Decent properties in the private sector are out of the reach of people on low incomes and so they have a choice of trying to get social housing, which is difficult because there's not enough of it, or go into sub-standard private properties. Therefore the lack of social housing pushes people on lower incomes into lower quality private rented. All political parties are responsible for not replacing the stock of social housing over the last 40 years.

 

That’s down to poor government legislation and lack of choice, people will put up with poor housing if they feel there is no choice, personally I wouldn't have encouraged buy to let by raiding pensions, but I would have encourage build to let.

But buy to let was encouraged on a massive scale by labour as first time buyers were pushed out of the market.

[chem1st]

This is totally unexpected!

 

And so are the resulting social problems...

[chem1st]

Sounds like chem1sts blueprint for solving the housing problem. If they are illegal I can see why they put up with it but if they aren't, move ! Move out of London, Stoke was offering housing wasn't it ?

 

Come off it.

 

I advocate building lots of affordable housing.

 

Needs and must though. The slums are a result. You cannot control human nature. People need roofs and they find them.

 

Thats why you have to support squatting. Empty homes with council tax discounts and homeless builders is what we have now. The UK has had a massive slump in construction - lowest house building in nearly 100 years - record unemployment and housing crisis to boot. Yet plenty of reserve labour to build a million plus units of housing per year!

 

There is a land monopoly, allowing for people to be exploited and enslaved via 'access to land'.

 

If you let people build their own housing, they would start off with a slum and soon have a mansion.

 

If you restrict building/improvement/productive work and enforce property rights over disused land, then you create a class of landless peasants, these are then exploited by landlords and any increase in population leads to a direct fall in housing standards - this in turn leads to bad health (no wonder London is the TB capital of Europe).

 

War, famine, epidemic or class struggle is the end result. People crammed into sheds can't cultivate the distant idle lands yielding CAP subsidies to wealthy landlords...

 

Access to land is key. Because if you can't access it you cannot use it unless your working for the man that does.

[tinfoilhat]

Come off it.

 

I advocate building lots of affordable housing.

 

Needs and must though. The slums are a result. You cannot control human nature. People need roofs and they find them.

 

Thats why you have to support squatting. Empty homes with council tax discounts and homeless builders is what we have now. The UK has had a massive slump in construction - lowest house building in nearly 100 years - record unemployment and housing crisis to boot. Yet plenty of reserve labour to build a million plus units of housing per year!

 

There is a land monopoly, allowing for people to be exploited and enslaved via 'access to land'.

 

If you let people build their own housing, they would start off with a slum and soon have a mansion.

 

If you restrict building/improvement/productive work and enforce property rights over disused land, then you create a class of landless peasants, these are then exploited by landlords and any increase in population leads to a direct fall in housing standards - this in turn leads to bad health (no wonder London is the TB capital of Europe).

 

War, famine, epidemic or class struggle is the end result. People crammed into sheds can't cultivate the distant idle lands yielding CAP subsidies to wealthy landlords...

 

Access to land is key. Because if you can't access it you cannot use it unless your working for the man that does.

 

I thought I'd highlighted the flaws in this well meaning but sadly deluded crusade. You seem to want to take the unemployed give them a plot of lad and build their own "house". With what materials ? With what skills ? Are we kicking building regs into touch ? Environmental impact ? They could cut down trees to build shacks or for firewood. They do that in Nepal. They get lots of floods now.

 

Anyway lets say johnny sixkids has liberated some bricks and timber and a bit of corrugated steel and he's built a house. How's he going to pay to get gas and electric in ? Is he going to bodge that as well or is he doing without ? When they arent living the dream (or tilling the land doing the subsistence farming thing most of Europe got rid of) how they going to get on with no plumbing ?

 

There are so many flaws in this my finger is getting tired. Am I being unfair here or can you see my point(s) ?