Housing: creative solutions

  Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement on 26th March is poised to be a defining moment. We stand at a crossroads, with stark choices before us. The Chancellor must resist the siren song of austerity and instead embrace a bold vision of investment, especially in housing, and safeguard the vital safety net of welfare. The idea that we can achieve economic growth by slashing benefits and public spending is not just misguided, it’s downright dangerous. It’s a cruel delusion to think that we can starve the very people who need support the most and somehow expect the economy to flourish. Cutting wages and benefits for the poor, the old, the sick, and the disabled is not just morally reprehensible, it’s economically illiterate. It will only deepen inequality and stifle any hope of real progress. Instead of these shortsighted cuts, Reeves must prioritise investment in social housing. A decent home is not a luxury; it’s a fundamental human right. Building more social housing will not only provid...

  As homelessness in the United Kingdom continues its relentless rise, reaching over 350,000 , the pressing question remains: why are housing associations (HAs), the wealthiest players in the housing sector, doing so little to stem this tide? With millions of pounds flowing into their coffers annually, housing associations have the financial muscle to make a significant impact. Yet, their contributions to addressing homelessness seem conspicuously limited. HAs have long been a cornerstone of social and affordable housing, managing extensive property portfolios and collecting substantial rental incomes from their tenants. These funds are intended for the maintenance and expansion of housing stock, ensuring that affordable housing remains available to those who need it most. However, a closer examination reveals that the priorities of these associations have shifted over time. The increasing pressure to operate with a business-like efficiency has led housing associations to focus o...

Picture a young couple, Jess and Sam. They have spent years diligently saving for a deposit, only to watch house prices skyrocket, far outpacing their wages. Enter shared ownership: the government's much-touted “affordable” solution. Buy a 25% stake in a flat, pay rent on the rest, and supposedly climb the property ladder step by step. It sounds reasonable—until the trap snaps shut. Shared ownership is marketed as a lifeline for a generation locked out of home ownership. However, peel back the glossy brochures, and you'll uncover a scheme riddled with exploitation , designed not to empower tenants but to enrich developers. This isn’t housing policy—it’s wealth extraction, disguised as social benevolence. The Illusion of Affordability Proponents claim shared ownership bridges the gap between renting and owning. The reality? A financial quagmire. Buyers face a triple burden: exorbitant service charges, unpredictable rent hikes (often tied to inflation), and the Sisyphean task ...

  The proposal by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and the National Housing Federation (NHF) to impose annual rent increases of CPI +1% for the next decade is not merely a policy suggestion. It is a microcosm of the structural assault embedded in the system, where institutions nominally tasked with supporting those who protect the vulnerable instead align with the interests of capital to further immiserate the poor. This is not an anomaly; it is the logical endpoint of a system designed to privatise gains and socialise costs, while masking exploitation in the language of necessity and progress. Who are the CIH and NHF? Though cloaked as advocates for housing justice, they operate within a framework that accepts as sacrosanct the priorities of state and corporate power. Their demand for above-inflation rent hikes—ostensibly to fund social housing construction—reveals a deeper allegiance to the logic of private profit. The claim that tenants must bear the burden of austerity ...

Complaints to the Housing Ombudsman are on an inexorable rise , revealing a festering issue at the core of housing organisations. These repeated failures have seeped into the national consciousness, catching the attention of both the media and concerned citizens. Even politicians, typically ensnared in their own agendas, have been forced to take notice. We yearn for housing to be a central theme during this general election - a #planforhousing that couldn’t be ignored. And the public? Well, they’ve noticed too. Over the past few years, a relentless stream of reports has flooded in, painting a grim picture of subpar living conditions. In this financial year alone, the Housing Ombudsman has censured 48 social housing organisations with the allegation of severe maladministration. The Secretary of State has taken notice, penning stern letters to each offender. But this crisis didn’t emerge overnight. Yes, factors like right-to-buy policies, chronic underfunding, aging housing stock, and th...

  It’s time for an informed debate on rent controls.  The laissez-faire, competitive market approach in the privately rented sector has demonstrably failed - as average private rents in Britain have climbed to record highs, renters are suffering and excessively high rents create a drain on the economy. Property website Rightmove has said that in May this year, the typical advertised rent outside London reached a record £1,316 a calendar month. In London it was £2,652 a month – almost three times the £894 asked for in north-east England. Rightmove said the average advertised rent outside London in May was an inflation-busting 7% higher than a year earlier. This leads those in the property industry with a vested interest to argue for an increase in supply. But it’s economically illiterate to believe that simply adding more privately rented housing will bring rents down. We need to look seriously at rent controls. Rent control policies vary widely across European countries, with ...

  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.

  Soaring renewable energy installations masked a harsh truth in 2023: the clean energy transition is faltering. Fossil fuel use continues to climb, with China shouldering most of the renewables burden. China's secret? State-owned companies prioritise national goals over profit, driving massive clean energy projects. The West, reliant on profit-driven private enterprise, struggles. Renewable energy offers modest returns, a stark contrast to traditional energy sources. Intense competition further squeezes profits. Subsidies keep the West's renewables afloat, but don't guarantee strong profits. As the Earth heats inexorably, Governments face a stark choice: accept the failure of the free market for clean energy, or embrace climate catastrophe

  Don’t believe the hype. Artificial intelligence is neither artificial nor intelligent. While advancements are exciting, a popular form of AI called machine learning is not the key to super intelligence that many claim. Machine learning is like a super pattern recognizer, analysing massive amounts of data to make predictions or complete tasks. It's great for specific things, like writing code or finding rhymes, but it doesn't capture how humans think. The human brain works in a completely different league. We can grasp complex ideas with way less information and come up with explanations, not just describe what's happening. Imagine a child learning grammar - they pick up the rules without needing mountains of data. Machine learning programs can't do this, they're stuck on a more basic way of understanding the world. This limited understanding restricts what machine learning programs can achieve. They can describe situations and even predict what might happen next, ...

  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...