The Government should make building hundreds of thousands of council homes its defining purpose. No other policy, achievable within a Parliament, would bring greater social and economic benefits. - ThreadSky

andyburnham.bsky.social • 58 days ago

The Government should make building hundreds of thousands of council homes its defining purpose.

No other policy, achievable within a Parliament, would bring greater social and economic benefits.

Reposted from The Guardian

Nearly two-thirds of working private renters in England struggle to pay rent

Comments

pollik.bsky.social•58 days ago

Closing the gap between the poor and the wealthy might help a bit, as well

mikerrobo.bsky.social•58 days ago

It is long overdue that house building was modernised. Factory build houses that could be produced to assemble on site in a few weeks. This technology produces energy efficiency homes that needs little heating.

davidwhitelab.bsky.social•58 days ago

Bring Stock Transfer Companies which Benefited from Free Stock and 100% Debt write off into Housing Coop with Council input. Bring TMO's back?

davidwhitelab.bsky.social•58 days ago

Bring ALMO's back in house and create Housing Co ops with Tenant and Council Partnership not over sized Management Structures and endless 99% satisfaction scores!

gliderrobin.bsky.social•58 days ago

Yes, but I am not sure that they can do it without replacing the Housing Association system. I have seen reports that they do not have enough money to buy and manage such places.

duncanfox.bsky.social•58 days ago

It makes perfect sense, local councils don't have the budget to do it but Central Govt could build them and that would ease so many pressures on local govt and people would see the benefit almost immediately

redfred.bsky.social•58 days ago

In 2010 I remember the Tories promising to build 200,000 starter homes PER YEAR. In fourteen years they built none, zilch, zero, fuck all.

vgrade.de•58 days ago

Could the government compulsory purchase all the land banked plots developers are sitting on?

colindlawson.bsky.social•58 days ago

Yes! I was lucky enough to grew up in one of the new towns of the 1950/60s).
"No other policy, achievable within a Parliament, would bring greater social and economic benefits." But planning should already be underway & must be informed by the mistakes as well as successes of previous initiatives.

regularbloke.bsky.social•58 days ago

Yes.
But it’ll never happen, banks estate agents, builders, mortgage brokers etc wouldn’t make it possible. Too many vested interests. Social housing is the answer very few in power or influence will admit to.

garriecoleman.bsky.social•58 days ago

Council-contracted built, council in-house maintained and council in-house administered. The buzzword ‘affordable’ then becomes a given as opposed to the lowest possible bar objective.

apjm5.bsky.social•58 days ago

And actively move jobs to the areas where they're being built. Achievable through rate reform. Also target council tax of 0.5% property value. Will drive migration from the South East to the regions. Necessary, but no chance of getting re-elected. Are Labour brave enough to make the hard choices?

regularbloke.bsky.social•58 days ago

Probably not as a whole group sadly.

stuzipants.bsky.social•58 days ago

Should bring the operative word

smartsmartie.bsky.social•58 days ago

Let's get back to the old ways of Councils having their own 'direct labour' departments responsible for building and maintaining the social housing in their areas. Skilled workers and apprentices trained in the crafts of house building, engendering community pride.

godley.bsky.social•58 days ago

You should have a word with your mates at Tameside council who are about to destroy a couple of square miles of greenbelt in Hyde so they can build 2000 houses with a starting price of 500k.
Wrong sort of housing in the wrong sort of area, but I bet you won't say anything as it's a Labour council.

benfenton.bsky.social•58 days ago

How would you propose preventing some future Heath or Thatcher (or indeed Callaghan) from selling them off?

mikedugdale.bsky.social•58 days ago

Proper education 😉

isoma.bsky.social•49 days ago

Refits and refurbishment could achieve much more:
• lower environmental impact than new build
• improved opportunities to train workers in refits
• we can align existing buildings to a use that suits them

…alongside targeted new build where appropriate.

philw12.bsky.social•58 days ago

Yes they should, without a doubt! But, they won’t because they are either scared of or in the pocket of the Private Sector Developers and their addiction to bloated profits.

mikedugdale.bsky.social•58 days ago

Absolutely
You fix the housing crisis and you fix everything.

antwhite.bsky.social•58 days ago

Andy, 700,000 empty homes already built. A sensible housing policy would include doing something about them - at a national level.

nasheridan.bsky.social•58 days ago

I don't understand why successive governments don't make use of derelict homes. We've all seen the news programmes where whole streets of houses lie empty

whsvvjjajh.bsky.social•57 days ago

I’m so struck by the difference in responses to this post on here and on twitter. The other place is just full of anger and hate. The polarisation is dispiriting.

leyther70.bsky.social•58 days ago

Not only does building more council homes help make homes affordable to rent. It also forces rents from private homes to be pushed lower, and even force them to sell. Making more affordable homes for people to buy.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply