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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/18/housing-crisis-bedroom-tax-failure-to-build
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| How to turn a housing crisis into a homeless catastrophe | How to turn a housing crisis into a homeless catastrophe |
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| 'Accommodation in The Royal Eagle is second to none! Guests can enjoy a 'Royal' welcome and a relaxed atmosphere." This well-heeled three star hotel charges £1,540 a week for a homeless family sent by Westminster council: ordinary punters pay a third less. Why would posh hotels take in the destitute except at extortionate rates? What is comfortable for tourists turns to hell for a family crammed in one room with nowhere to cook or wash clothes. | 'Accommodation in The Royal Eagle is second to none! Guests can enjoy a 'Royal' welcome and a relaxed atmosphere." This well-heeled three star hotel charges £1,540 a week for a homeless family sent by Westminster council: ordinary punters pay a third less. Why would posh hotels take in the destitute except at extortionate rates? What is comfortable for tourists turns to hell for a family crammed in one room with nowhere to cook or wash clothes. |
| Westminster expects 5,000 families to be evicted by housing benefit cuts – and it's happening almost everywhere. Councils have no choice as they frantically search for cheap housing, often hundreds of miles away. In Hull the bedroom tax hits 4,700 families with a spare room, and only 73 small properties free. | Westminster expects 5,000 families to be evicted by housing benefit cuts – and it's happening almost everywhere. Councils have no choice as they frantically search for cheap housing, often hundreds of miles away. In Hull the bedroom tax hits 4,700 families with a spare room, and only 73 small properties free. |
| Westminster's housing cabinet member, Jonathan Glanz, supports the policy: "The cap on housing benefits means some of those who used to live in Westminster – one of the most expensive areas in the country – can no longer afford to do so at the taxpayers' expense." The government senses public support – but people's views change when they see families evicted after living there for generations. Social housing since the days of Peabody and Guinness created a deliberate mix, interleaving decent working class housing and affluent streets, so cities can thrive on a social blend where those who clean, cater and care live near their work. | Westminster's housing cabinet member, Jonathan Glanz, supports the policy: "The cap on housing benefits means some of those who used to live in Westminster – one of the most expensive areas in the country – can no longer afford to do so at the taxpayers' expense." The government senses public support – but people's views change when they see families evicted after living there for generations. Social housing since the days of Peabody and Guinness created a deliberate mix, interleaving decent working class housing and affluent streets, so cities can thrive on a social blend where those who clean, cater and care live near their work. |
| But even those who agree with the policy in theory must be astounded at its expensive incompetence in practice. Puny savings from housing benefit bulge into huge local council bills. Never mind the injustice of evicting 660,000 households, wrenching children from schools, parents from jobs and families from relatives who provide childcare – if you tried to turn a housing crisis into a catastrophe, you couldn't do better. Capping housing benefit equally everywhere, regardless of widely differing rents, means driving the poor and the unlucky into no-hope ghettos without jobs or school places. A third of those hit by the "spare room" tax are disabled, with no exemption for divorced parents or foster parents with visiting children. Families in Hartlepool and Liverpool who have suffered the death of a child now face cuts for their empty bedrooms. | But even those who agree with the policy in theory must be astounded at its expensive incompetence in practice. Puny savings from housing benefit bulge into huge local council bills. Never mind the injustice of evicting 660,000 households, wrenching children from schools, parents from jobs and families from relatives who provide childcare – if you tried to turn a housing crisis into a catastrophe, you couldn't do better. Capping housing benefit equally everywhere, regardless of widely differing rents, means driving the poor and the unlucky into no-hope ghettos without jobs or school places. A third of those hit by the "spare room" tax are disabled, with no exemption for divorced parents or foster parents with visiting children. Families in Hartlepool and Liverpool who have suffered the death of a child now face cuts for their empty bedrooms. |
| Nothing about housing policy makes sense. The government is right that spending £23bn a year on housing benefit is grossly wasteful, but why punish tenants when most of it goes straight to landlords? They claimed these cuts would make rents fall, but instead they rise. At the same time, housing associations must charge an unaffordable 80% of market rent, which makes them "social" only for higher earners. | Nothing about housing policy makes sense. The government is right that spending £23bn a year on housing benefit is grossly wasteful, but why punish tenants when most of it goes straight to landlords? They claimed these cuts would make rents fall, but instead they rise. At the same time, housing associations must charge an unaffordable 80% of market rent, which makes them "social" only for higher earners. |
| This is the ultra-sharp end of a national crisis, the fallout of three decades of failure to build – and Labour is just as much to blame. Gigantic bubbles inflated house prices to such a degree that Shelter estimates a chicken would now cost £51.18 if food prices had risen as fast. Forget David Cameron's "Tory housing revolution": building fell by 9% last year, while homelessness is a third higher. For the first time since the 1950s, home ownership is falling. Renting now costs more than a mortgage. Worse still, 37% of rented properties are substandard. Labour's promise of a national register of landlords and agencies will help stop slum landlordism. Just as welcome is its promise of five-year tenancies where rents can only rise with inflation. | This is the ultra-sharp end of a national crisis, the fallout of three decades of failure to build – and Labour is just as much to blame. Gigantic bubbles inflated house prices to such a degree that Shelter estimates a chicken would now cost £51.18 if food prices had risen as fast. Forget David Cameron's "Tory housing revolution": building fell by 9% last year, while homelessness is a third higher. For the first time since the 1950s, home ownership is falling. Renting now costs more than a mortgage. Worse still, 37% of rented properties are substandard. Labour's promise of a national register of landlords and agencies will help stop slum landlordism. Just as welcome is its promise of five-year tenancies where rents can only rise with inflation. |
| Everything about housing is wickedly entwined with the economy. The collapse in construction is a major cause of the double-dip. The government's NewBuy scheme failed, creating 3,000 instead of the promised 100,000 new homes. FirstBuy is doing little better, at 6,493 so far. Yet developers sit on enough land for half a million homes, waiting for prices to rise. They admit to making higher profits despite no building. Taylor Wimpey has called this its "ongoing strategy of prioritising margin over volume". The IPPR's housing report shows how a conspiracy between banks and developers to keep up the book value of land means a deliberate refusal to build, for fear of exposing their assets' true worth. This zombie dysfunction needs firm government action, forcing them to sell if they won't build. | |
| Labour's answer must be build, build, build. Jack Dromey, its housing spokesman, says every recovery from depression or war needs massive building, in the 1930s and in Macmillan's "never had it so good" years. For every 100,000 new homes, GDP rises by 1%, the best engine of growth. The National Housing Federation says every £1bn the government gives housing associations can lever in another £8bn in borrowing. Local authorities could be freed to borrow to build, against the value of their assets. An idea for new garden cities flashes on Labour's radar. But until Labour dares to say it will borrow for investment, the scale of its ambition is ambiguous. | Labour's answer must be build, build, build. Jack Dromey, its housing spokesman, says every recovery from depression or war needs massive building, in the 1930s and in Macmillan's "never had it so good" years. For every 100,000 new homes, GDP rises by 1%, the best engine of growth. The National Housing Federation says every £1bn the government gives housing associations can lever in another £8bn in borrowing. Local authorities could be freed to borrow to build, against the value of their assets. An idea for new garden cities flashes on Labour's radar. But until Labour dares to say it will borrow for investment, the scale of its ambition is ambiguous. |
| Housing doesn't rank high in public priorities. Yet on deeper questioning people do worry greatly about housing themselves and their children. Why don't they say so? Oddly, while they see the NHS or police as political issues, they see housing as their own private problem. Labour needs to make a great building programme feel like a promise for everyone's families, as well as a spur for growth. This week the property website RightMove eagerly reports "the busiest new year since the credit crunch", with the highest price jump. But one solemn pledge all governments should make is to prick every bubble. Of all irresponsible capitalism, the house price casino has done people most harm. | Housing doesn't rank high in public priorities. Yet on deeper questioning people do worry greatly about housing themselves and their children. Why don't they say so? Oddly, while they see the NHS or police as political issues, they see housing as their own private problem. Labour needs to make a great building programme feel like a promise for everyone's families, as well as a spur for growth. This week the property website RightMove eagerly reports "the busiest new year since the credit crunch", with the highest price jump. But one solemn pledge all governments should make is to prick every bubble. Of all irresponsible capitalism, the house price casino has done people most harm. |
| • This article was amended on 20 February 2013. The original said the FirstBuy scheme had delivered 3,499 sales so far. That was the total between April and September 2012. Another 2,994 sales were made between the start of the scheme in October 2011 and March 2012. |