Unequal shares: All that is Solid
Posted: February 25, 2014 Filed under: Equality, Housing market, Tax | Tags: All that is Solid, Danny Dorling Leave a commentWhat if our real housing problem is not a lack of a new homes but the distribution of the ones we already have?
That’s the key premise of All that is Solid: the Great Housing Disaster, an intriguing new book published this week by Danny Dorling, professor of human geography at Oxford University. In it he attacks not just the ‘yes to homes’ consensus about the solution to the housing crisis but the actions of just about all the key people involved. Politicians, housebuilders, landlords and property journalists are all seen as part of the problem but housing associations, the CIH and the voluntary sector also come under fire for accepting the status quo.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Pickled homes
Posted: February 20, 2014 Filed under: Housebuilding | Tags: Eric Pickles Leave a commentTo hear ministers talk we are in the middle of a housebuilding boom. Official figures released today beg to differ.
According to the DCLG housebuilding statistics for the fourth quarter of 2013, starts and completions in England were both down 1 per cent on the third quarter. These are only the figures for one quarter but they don’t seem in the script.
While starts for the year as a whole were up 23 per cent on 2012 at 122,800, completions were down 5 per cent at 109,480. True, those starts will soon turn into new homes but this hardly feels like a giant step towards the promised land of 250,000 additional homes a year.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Rough times
Posted: February 13, 2014 Filed under: Homelessness, Local government Leave a commentIn a grim few years for housing and homelessness No Second Night Out stands out as a rare bright spot.
The idea behind the scheme, which was extended to 20 areas outside London in 2011, is that the longer someone sleeps rough the greater the risk that they will become trapped on the streets and vulnerable to crime, drug or alcohol issues or mental or physical health problems. No Second Night Out (NSNO) aims to help people off the streets as quickly as possible and ensure that they do not return.
Seen and heard: Dispatches on the bedroom tax
Posted: February 11, 2014 Filed under: Bedroom tax, Legal, Television Leave a commentFive things struck me watching the Dispatches documentary on the bedroom tax on Channel 4 last night.
First, it’s impossible for anyone to cover all the issues and angles in half an hour. That’s not a criticism of Channel 4 at all, more a comment on the complexity of the implications of the bedroom tax and the way that the effects vary around the country. I must have written thousands of words on the subject over the last two years and invariably have to cut something important or leave an angle untouched.
It sounds like lots of material ended up on the cutting room floor for last night’s programme too but, within the time allowed, it did a very good job of presenting the issue from the point of view of under-occupying tenants, social landlords and local authorities. We heard from Iain Sim of Coast and Country Housing on its 150 per cent increase in voids since April 2013 and a couple who were both in wheelchairs who face the bedroom tax on the ‘spare’ room in their specially adapted flat yet were denied a discretionary housing payment. The programme was also balanced enough to include two overcrowded families who have benefitted from larger homes being freed up.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Benefits Street, The Spongers and welfare reality
Posted: February 9, 2014 Filed under: Poverty, Television, Welfare state | Tags: Benefits Street, The Spongers 6 CommentsThis week’s final episode of Benefits Street made me go back and rewatch another programme with a provocative title about life on social security.
I was 17 when The Spongers was first transmitted in January 1978 and I still remember it as the single most stunning and harrowing piece of television I have ever seen. The 90-minute programme was a Play for Today – the famous series of one-off dramas that ran on the BBC in the 1970s and 1980s – and tells the story of Pauline, a single mother from a council estate near Manchester. It opens with the bailiffs arriving to seize her furniture because she is in rent arrears and upsetting her eldest daughter, Paula, who has Down’s Syndrome. That’s swiftly followed by a scene outside where workers are erecting giant heads of the Queen and Prince Philip ready for the Silver Jubilee celebrations. Cue the opening titles. You can watch it here:
A quick rant about train lines and climate change
Posted: February 6, 2014 Filed under: Climate change, Cornwall, Transport Leave a comment
It may not be conclusive proof that climate change exists but the sight of the rails on the main train line to the South West suspended in mid air above the sea seems a pretty fair indication of it.
If you’ve never taken the train to Devon and Cornwall, the stretch around Dawlish and Teignmouth is possibly the most scenic in the whole country (the only rival I can think of is the Kyle of Localsh line in the Highlands). The views are breathtaking as the train runs directly above the beach, only metres above sea level, and beneath distinctive red cliffs.
Unfortunately, that means it is also one of the most vulnerable in the UK too. Landslips on the cliffs around Teignmouth and damage from storm surges have happened with depressing regularity but this is the first time I can remember the sea breaching the sea wall at Dawlish.
Crisis talk
Posted: February 5, 2014 Filed under: Housebuilding, Housing market Leave a commentIt was the housing shortage rather than the housing crisis that he said would last for 10 years but it was still a surprisingly frank admission from George Osborne.
This was the key quote from the chancellor yesterday that was the basis of the stories in this morning’s papers:
‘I imagine if we were all assembled again in 10 years’ time we’d still be talking about the challenge of making sure that our housing supply kept up with housing demand and we’re all legislators here and we all have a responsibility to the next generation.’
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Jules Birch 