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Put social housing into wealthy areas like Mayfair to solve housing crisis.
Mountain_Runner
Posts: 1,927 Forum Member
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There is a housing crisis in Britain and Wales. In places like London this is made even worse by the rich taking over social housing. This is creating class barriers. Former council tower blocks in Hackney, Bermondsey etc are selling for nearly £500K providing homes for the rich, who then leave them vacant while prices get even higher.
I think its time a government put price caps on properties. Places like Mayfair have relatively few properties taking up a huge amount of ground space. Some homes could house 10 families!
With a price cap housing associations and communes could take over these homes and rent them out to the poor.
It would help create social integration and reduce class barriers with people on very low incomes living alongside the rich. We could create community units with a community centre and pub to help social mixing.
Those 3 luxury tower blocks in the Barbican could be retuned to social housing as originally intended.
This does sound very radical but something needs to be done to provide affordable housing to all. We need politicians who should promote this idea.
I think its time a government put price caps on properties. Places like Mayfair have relatively few properties taking up a huge amount of ground space. Some homes could house 10 families!
With a price cap housing associations and communes could take over these homes and rent them out to the poor.
It would help create social integration and reduce class barriers with people on very low incomes living alongside the rich. We could create community units with a community centre and pub to help social mixing.
Those 3 luxury tower blocks in the Barbican could be retuned to social housing as originally intended.
This does sound very radical but something needs to be done to provide affordable housing to all. We need politicians who should promote this idea.
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By the way, Wales is in Britain, not separate.
wishing it ain't doing diddly squat
Don't tell me this is the latest idea of your tutor who thinks lottery tickets should be able to be bought by all but the prizes only won by the poor and unemployed ?
It would not be confiscation as the owners would be paid. Those who buy to invest will be the ones who will have to sell their properties after a price cap has been agreed. Those already living there can stay as long as they want.
It's as much an attack on the wealthy as its is when former council tower blocks are taken over by the rich investors and their original residents forced to live else where.
booooooooo!!!!!
boooooooooooooooooooo!!!!1
boooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!
The main problem with the home counties is that the tory run councils refuse to built social housing because they know the tenants will not vote tory! They want to keep the poor out.
Well he would have similar ideas to this. But the college is closed now for the holidays so I'd have to wait till we go back. Russell Brand would probably back a similar idea.
Alternatively make it so that social housing can not be sold off to "the rich". The rich can see there house prices rising while those in social housing know that they will get little return when they sell it.
Edit: By the way, how exactly would poor people be able to afford what the owners of the apartments in Mayfair would charge for rent?
It's the richest and classiest part of London and the UK.
Everyone would mix together both rich and poor, we'd provide prefabricated community centres and a pub to socialise in.
Isnt that what DS does best.
At the moment its those who are either very rich or can qualify for social housing that can live in central London. What about providing for those in the middle for once!!
Rent control caps. Rent would be the same across all of London. A 2 bed flat in Tower Hamlets or the Aylesbury Estate or Southwark would be the same as in Mayfair, Chelsea, Notting Hill etc.
This is needed to combat the shortage of affordable homes.
Maybe Fortnum and Mason could close off half of their food hall, and open an Iceland concession.
Did the SNP actually say how they'd fund building the houses?
IIRC a lot of the SNP held councils are already in the red, partly because although the SNP has some tax related powers they refuse to use them to raise money (for some reason it seems they think it's better to say "look Westminster is being mean and not funding us properly" whilst ignoring their own funding options).
I guess they could fund it from the oil revenue which can only go up*.
We need more affordable housing and taking over Mayfair will do nothing for it, except scare off the rich, and put us on a course to having major problems with investors and anyone looking to spend money on UK properties or businesses (there is a reason people don't tend to put money into countries where the government has a habit of confiscating properties for no reason).
My suggestion would be that a tax on all new builds be ring fenced and put aside so that for say every 25 new houses built a 26th could be built out of that tax, and a higher tax on any houses bought as second homes or to let.
Oh and of course actually impliment the current rules on affordable housing as part of any development, so that developers can't wriggle out of the requirements (for all planning requirements in fact - so if a developer says they'll pay for something as part of the planning application they have to pay a portion of it off with every house they complete, some developers seem to be very good at putting off funding what they've said they'll do).
*Said just before the price of oil crashed through the floor to about 20% of what the SNP were basing their Independent Scottish budget forcasts on (and which when anyone pointed out that oil prices vary led to cries of "scaremongering").
Presumably a flat-roofed estate pub...
You do have some strange ideas.
Yeah, I'm sure the owners would be happy about losing out on a lot of money in rent compared to what they get from their wealthy customers.