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Good article by Simon Jenkins:
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Building tower blocks will only continue to overheat the housing market and is not the answer.
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More instances of shoddy building work:
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So that squat didn't last long, unsurprisingly:
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Very worrying:
standard.co.uk/news/crime/group-of-masked-and-hooded-fascists-launch-attack-on-squatters-residing-in-belgravia-mansion-a3453711.html
I always wondered how Columbian plantation owners managed to find people willing to fight on their behalf. Assumed it was for the money.
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No better way of putting plebs in their place than by means of truly awful policies on housing:
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A good summary of recent unjust policies here:
When the Tories decided to cut local council budgets, it was inevitable that housing support services would suffer. When they entirely removed housing benefit from 18- to 21-year-olds, it was certain that young people would be forced on to the streets. When they opted to impose an arbitrary cap on the maximum amount a household can receive in welfare, it was housing benefit that was cut. Never mind that the money goes straight into landlords’ pockets and tenants are not responsible for sky-high rents. Never mind that families with young children were sure to be forced out of their homes as a result.
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No longer squatted per se, but has as anyone ever visited the Crass house/Dial House near Epping?
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Sorry, missed this. No, I haven't--very interesting history there.
I once met Crass, though, because an old friend of mine is a fan. /csb
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Nice map of square metre of housing prices (England and Wales only):
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/oct/11/kensington-ebbw-vale-price-sq-m-uk-property-divide
It could either be argued that most people are softies for piling into the south-east, or that the magnetic pull of (the rest of) Europe must be resisted. :)
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I don't think I even heard of it.
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As ever, lots of stuff in the press about the housing crisis. Lots about homelessness:
About housebuilding:
I'm sure Khan's intentions are very good, but the problem with this stuff is always that elsewhere than London lots of homes stay empty, property is very cheap, business investment is low, so why should so much activity happen in London? It's all very well to talk about 'affordable' but since that still means very high prices and profits, all I can see that this would do would be to continue overheating the housing market. Homes for social rent are currently a policymaker's pipe dream, at least until a new government comes in, so I think that any effort to further concentrate population in London is wrong-headed. There are plenty of places that are haemorrhaging people because of the uneven distribution of economic activity which should be supported by government policy to achieve investment there. Obviously, as Mayor London Khan is in a bind, because he has to promote London, so I don't blame him. I just think the whole direction/absence of direction or strategy is wrong.
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Some history--there are a lot of interesting stories like this, most not successful, but this one was:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/oct/30/frestonia-london-commune-squatters
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In the steady stream of 'how to solve the housing crisis by building on this or that kind of land', this is one of the more sensible suggestions:
Obviously, you wouldn't want to replace the surface car parks with undercroft garages. Instead, everybody who has been using them to commute to the station by car would be completely cut off from their previous job and would have to start businesses locally, reducing the need to travel even further. :) #pipedream
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How to solve the housing crisis by building above open railways:
Next week: How to solve the housing crisis by building cantilevered extensions on existing tower blocks.
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This article contains a good dose of all the stupidity in the world:
It is precisely the whole problem with high house prices and rents that people have to use a ridiculously high proportion of their income to afford them. All of that money only goes into one industry and the only effect is to concentrate wealth further, which is very bad for the economy. Claiming that 'small lifestyle changes' are all that's needed (a) puts the onus on the victims of this economic tendency, not proposing to make any changes on the market side, and (b) seeks to maintain an over-inflated bubble that would have collapsed long ago had rates risen.
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Ah, here's the next instalment, and in an unprecedented and entirely surprising development a company is confident that the solution to London's housing crisis lies in use of its own products.
Next week: How to solve London's housing crisis by covering the Thames in tower blocks.
General_Strike
psg1ben
dicki
Gregory
Jezston-
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Squats and squatting / London housing
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@Oliver Schick
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/07/private-renting-needs-a-complete-overhaul