INTRODUCTION - Housing is central to health and social life.
The most obvious role of housing is to give
shelter from the elements to keep its inhabitants warm (or cool) and dry. Housing
also needs to be hygienic to be conducive to good health. This means access to
clean water, sewage disposal and areas for safe food preparation. These are
requirements are physical and can be specified in building codes.
However, housing has a social aspect. This
means that housing cannot be provided in isolation. It needs to seen in the
context of the whole built environment so as to provide access to jobs,
education, health services, shops, entertainment, etc.
In order to support mental and social
well-being, housing and the surrounding built environment needs to please its inhabitants.
This means buildings need to be attractive and well cared for. Along with the
aesthetic qualities of buildings the historic aspect of buildings need to be
taken into consideration.
Housing should be in keeping also with
the natural environment – built in sustainable ways and providing people with
access to fresh air and exercise.
While many people in Britain have
housing that satisfies the physical requirements, they find that these come at
a high cost. Further, while some lack housing security, others are secure only
while they remain in homes that are unsuitable. The following is an analysis of
the problem and some solutions.
THE PROBLEM
1. Britain
is in the grip of a housing crisis.
·
Officially 1.8 households are on Council waiting
lists for social rented accommodation (double the number of 1997). Officially
nearly 100,000 people are homeless or sleeping rough, but charities believe the
real figure is 3 or 4 times higher. 3m people officially live in overcrowded
accommodation including 1m children[i].
2. Britain’s
housing policy is generally portrayed as one of a housing shortage ignoring the
glaringly unequal distribution of the current housing stock and the scandal of
empty homes.
·
There are 703,000 second homes[ii];
·
The best housed tenth of the population has
almost four times as many rooms per person as the worst housed and nearly a
quarter of a million households have 8 or more rooms per person (compared with
a mean housing space of 2.22 rooms per person and a median of 1.88 room per
person)[iii].
Overall research shows that housing inequality is back to where it was at the
time of Downton Abbey,having improved somewhat between 1921 and 1981 (the era of
council housebuilding and the embracing of the welfare state) These housing
inequalities reflect almost exactly income inequalities.
·
There are 720,000 empty homes in England of
which 279,000 have been empty for more than 6 months[iv]
3. Unequal
distribution is a regional problem due to Britain’s economic growth being
concentrated in financial services, based largely in London and the South East.
·
There is almost double the rate of empty
homes in England’s former industrial areas as there is in London. http://www.fathom.com/feature/121958/index.html
·
Inner London has
the highest proportions of households on Council waiting lists – at 14.3%
nearly double the national average – with Newham at 34.9%, Tower Hamlets at
23.6% and Lewisham at 13.5% and Greenwich at 7%[v].
·
House prices in London
are nearly three times the mean price in in North East, North West and
Yorkshire; rents are 50% higher in London than in the same areas[vi].
·
75% of the 60,000
households officially in temporary accommodation are in London.
4. Housing problems bring health and other
social problems – there is a strong link between income inequality and
other housing problems such as mould, damp and being cold in winter. http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/113260/E92729.pdf
5. Poor housing falls disproportionately on the young and on
ethnic minorities. 28% of households accepted by local authorities as homeless
and in priority need were from ethnic groups[vii]. 52% of all private renters are aged under 35, an
unprecedentedly high percentage of people aged 20-34 are living with their
parents with adverse effects on relationships and self-esteem[viii].
6. Urban ‘regeneration’ housing schemes have been provided
without accompanying infrastructure and cheaply built with minimal regard to
space and employment. They have been geared to providing profits for
construction companies and property developers.
CAUSES
1. Privatisation
and deregulation of the housing market
·
Between 1980 and 2009 4.39m council and social
housing homes were sold off or demolished (2.75m – right to buy sales; 1.4m
stock transfers; 0.24m demolished)[ix].
Rent controls, introduced in 1915, were effectively
abolished in the Housing Act of 1988. Currently low income families, especially
lone parents and extended families in the private rented sector spend 40-50% of
their income on rent.
·
Property developers, construction companies and
law firms have benefitted from the process. Persimmon’s profits 2010-11 were
£154m, Taylor Wimpey and Bellway £67m each.
·
Buy-to-Let investments which can yield up to 10%
return for Multiple Occupancy Homes[x]
have raised the general prices of houses.
·
PFI/PPP projects have been beset by legal
wrangles and delays due to uncertainties in the property market – that is it is
a slow way of dealing with housing shortages
·
It costs £1,300 more per home to make
improvements after transfer to Housing Associations and ALMOs than it would if
councils were given the money to do the work themselves[xi].
2. Uneven economic development
De-industrialisation and a free rein to markets and financial services
have lead to the skewed development normally more observable in a colonial
country. The old industrial heartlands still have swathes of industrial
wasteland and community breakdown; even in London overexpansion of service
sectors has created unoccupied office space, with a long-run average vacancy
rate of 8%.
SOLUTIONS - immediate
End
privatisation – increase Council ownership and maintenance / assist community
ownership
1. Compulsory
purchase and refurbishment of all empty homes.
2. Use
of Council direct works teams to carry out refurbishment repairs and
maintenance to purchased properties.
3. End
PFIs and PPPs for housing developments. All new build schemes or schemes to
convert empty offices and shopping malls should only receive planning
permission if 100% of the homes created are social rented.
4. Reintroduce
rent controls – rents, whether in the private or social sector should be no
more on average than 25% of income.
5.
Encourage squatting and provide a legal framework
for long-term housing co-operatives. Homes
are to live in – they are not an investment.
6. Change
to rating system for second homes in such a way as to deter the purchase of
more second homes and to release homes to the local population.
7. Deter
buy-to-let purchases through changes to the rating system and mortgage interest
rates.
SOLUTIONS – LONGER-TERM
1. Lewisham
and Greenwich People Before Profit has a long-standing commitment to
re-establishing manufacturing industry, specifically in the ‘green’ sector. To
combat the true extent of unemployment, underemployment and worklessness, we
have the aim of creating 5 million jobs through balanced economic development
across the UK. This would invigorate local communities, put unused commercial
property to productive use and alleviate much of the housing pressures in
London and the South East. Because of
this we do not support the recent initiative by Eric Pickles to encourage the
conversion of empty industrial and warehouse space to residential uses. This
scheme is merely a way for owners of such properties to avoid business rates,
and in the long-term restricts industrial development. We do, however, believe
that London’s massive provision of office and retail space is a poor use of
available land and contributes to the continued imbalance in the national
economy.
[i]
Corporate Watch (2011) Housing Crisis
citing research by Shelter
[ii]English
Housing Survey 2009-10 http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/statistics/pdf/1937206.pdf
[iv] http://emptyhomes.com/statistics-2/. The problem of empty homes is worst in the North
East (4.16%) of homes and best in London (2.21%) reflecting the general
regional imbalance in England. 75% of the 60,000 households in temporary accommodation are in London.
There are 26,000 long-term empty homes in Scotland.
[vii]
Homelessness – the Poverty site: http://www.poverty.org.uk/81/index.shtml
[viii]
Howker, E. and Malik, S. (2010) Jilted
Generation ch 1.
[ix]
Hodgkinson, S. (2011) “The neoliberal project, privatisation and the housing
crisis” Corporate Watch 50/51 http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4178
[x]
“Housing Profiteers Corporate Watch 50/51 http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4178 ; Property Wire 17.4.2012 http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/uk-buy-let-yields-201204176426.html
[xi]
National Audit Office cited by Lawrence, B. (2011) “Housing Associations” Corporate Watch 50/51, p.8 http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4178
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