Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

I think some people must have been asleep for the last few years and totally missed the 'local area Development Plans' for each area of the country including my own area where 28,000 new houses are being built.
Many of these houses are being built in totally unsuitable rural areas where there isn't any infrastructure to take them eg no work/school places/doctors surgeries. Traffic will be feeding onto existing extremely busy link roads which are already at a standstill at certain times of the day when commuters try to access the two bridges which cross the river Severn to give access to the motorway also overcrowded most of the time these days .

This is designated 'Area of outstanding natural beauty' where people come to get away from work and crowds, once the land is built on it will be gone forever.

Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

Some of us lost all that years ago. Where I am used to be one of three villages, now we are just part of the larger town, lost all the greenery between them. To me it's just someone else's turn I am afraid.

But this housing crisis really began with Mrs T selling off council houses and no one has replaced them since.

Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

As I said in an earlier post on another thread, in our part of London new developments are being built on every square inch of land. Not a single one is social housing. All the flats, apartments etc (one bed flat starting at £350,000, 3 bed starting at £500,000) are for wealthy incomers. Meanwhile youngsters here are starting their married lives in filthy bed sits for which they are paying £1250 and more a month. Further, as Meg pointed out above, there has been no infrastructure investment to accompany the increase in population - no extra doctors, dentists, school places, hospitals (they are being cut not increased) or social workers.

Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

To be fair Julie, you are not alone in suffering town expansion and many of the people who bought those houses were council house tenants who got them for a very good price. Even if they could afford to pay full price for a private house, new houses would still have to be built!
We had a balanced situation where the birthrate didn't rapidly increase the population, thereby ensuring that there were sufficient houses and jobs for our population. We also had good education for everyone, so those who wanted to, could get a good job that allowed them to move into more expensive houses.
The real problem is the number of people living in this country, because a lot more choose to move here than move out, and this upsets the balance we had in Mrs Thatchers days. Our best option is to allow less people to immigrate, otherwise the situation will turn out like Pete Seegers record... Little Boxes!

Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

I don't disagree but unless we have some checks on how many children people can have or how many houses they can own nothing else will cure the problem.

Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

Its been a long time since Mrs T.
And the long years of Labour government didn't do much for social housing to redress the situation. On the contrary they allowed almost unlimited immigration thus exacerbating the housing crisis.
The council houses that were sold still provided a home for people often for the very people who had paid rent on them for years.

Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

Alll local Councils and the Goverment own thousand of empty properties just waiting to be sold or modernised
Saying the 'money is not available' is no excuse.

Many builders would happily update these properties and sell them
Aslo there are thousands of empy retail shop properties in City High Streets three and four stories high,esily converted int apatment for first time buyers who would love to live in the city.

Lots of thes shops are also owned by the'Church of England' which is now run as a very successful commercial bussiness, They ought to show more charity and release them for sale, or to let, for domestic use.

Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

Whilst that was true, thatcher's (phth, phth, phth) government, as well as forcing local authorities to sell off their properties to the residing tenants, also stopped Councils from using the money from these sales to be used in building replacement housing stock, so no there are no longer large amounts of council owned housing stock.

Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

Source Daily Mirror Jan 20th 2015

60,940 Homeless Households
632.127 Empty Homes.

10 Empty Homes for each Homeless family

Re: Who says we don't have a housing shortage???

Why do we still let immigrants into this country when we already have a sever housing shortage? It is about time we pulled up the drawbridge and said no more to any immigrants from anywhere