Housing: creative solutions

  Queues for first council housing in 30 years in Minehead. Courtesy BBC 19th June 2024 There's no doubt that it’s the impact of austerity measures implemented by the Conservative Government since 2010 that have disproportionately affected the most vulnerable, exacerbating inequality and poverty. Key areas impacted include public services, welfare benefits, and job security. Austerity has led to increased reliance on food banks, higher levels of debt, and greater mental health issues. And since the First World War the wealth gap has never been so wide. Policy changes are desperately needed to prioritise social protection and equitable economic recovery.

  3 days after the 2024 General Election was called, the Digital Protection and Digital Information Bill failed to proceed before the Parliamentary session ended. This article is left online as a reference point for the future. As the world continues to grapple with the revelations of unscrupulous tax evasion by global billionaires, the UK Government is gearing up to pursue the most vulnerable in society to recover overpaid benefits. In late 2023, the EU Tax Observatory estimated that a modest 2% levy on the world’s 2,756 wealthiest billionaires could generate a staggering £250bn annually . These billionaires collectively hold an estimated wealth of $13tn. The report poignantly highlighted the lack of serious efforts to address this issue, warning that the current situation could potentially undermine the public’s faith in existing tax systems. However, rather than tackling this glaring inequality, the UK government is instead focusing its efforts on the less privileged. It is see...

  Published in The Guardian, 8th February 1995