Is there a Crisis:
1) Home ownership has fallen for the first time since the census began:
2) Many of the people on the housing ladder did so by taking out risky mortgage loans that stretched them to their financial limit. Now that the economy is struggling, people are finding it harder to meet their monthly repayments, often with dire consequences: 28,900 Homes where repossessed across the UK in 2013
3) How we live is changing. In England, nine million people now rent privately.
It’s not just students and young professionals anymore: more than a third of renting households are families with children, and half are older than 35.
With home ownership out of reach and social housing waiting lists ever-growing, private renting has become the only choice for millions of families. But with soaring costs, poor conditions and a lack of stability, renting has fast become the worst of all worlds.
Since 2001, the proportion of homes rented privately has rocketed by 69%. But this surge in demand hasn’t been supported by the necessary changes to make renting safe, stable and affordable.
- Over a third of private rented homes fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard.
- Rents are likely to rise by 20% in the next two years to 2016 making average rent in London £1,800 per month, On that basis, you will need an income of £4,500 a month after tax - which works out meaning you would need to earn £80,000 a year to rent.
- There were more than 85,000 about rogue landlords in 2012 around 27% increase; of those complaints, 62% were about serious and life-threatening hazards and there was a 77% increase in successful prosecutions
4) Homelessness is rising. The number of homeless households are rising by more than 50,000 a year.
Households found to be homeless, by region
| Region | Number of Households 2012/13 | Number of Households 2011/12 | % change since 2011/12 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Midlands | 4,974 | 5,540 | -10% | |||||
| East of England | 7,410 | 7,270 | 2% | |||||
| London | 22,279 | 18,660 | 19% | |||||
| North East | 3,351 | 3,290 | 2% | |||||
| North West | 7,908 | 7,960 | -1% | |||||
| South East | 9,054 | 8,350 | 8% | |||||
| South West | 5,004 | 5,180 | -3% | |||||
| West Midlands | 12,395 | 12,830 | -3% | |||||
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 9,056 | 8,900 | 2% | |||||
| England | 81,770 | 77,900 | 5% |
Source: DCLG Homelessness Statistics
"But I don't see any homeless people near me", I hear many people say
If you still think there is no housing crisis; then you really need to wake up and smell the rotting stench of the carcass of your own common sense in the presence of the facts...
What can we do?
Build more homes; At the moment, as a country we are building around 100,000 homes a year.
But to solve the housing shortage we should be building 250,000 homes a
year. These seem like big numbers, but a failure to reach it will mean
rents and house prices will just keep on rising. The government needs to invest more money into house building to get the
ball rolling. Not only will this help us to deliver more homes, but
every £1 invested in house-building leads to £3.51 going back into the
economy.
How many homes did Boris Johnson build 16,800... pitiful. The Mayors own research shows he needs to build 62,000 homes a year; he set HIMSELF a target of 42,000 he's not even close to that. Why is he so far from meeting his target? Why is a Tory government again selling off desperately needed council homes?
Here's the answer they don't want you to hear:
Simply put. The Tories don't want to build more homes. It goes against all there interests to build more homes. The Tories have a core vote; that core vote is the elderly, who tend to own their own homes? The elderly; who are more likely to be landlords? The elderly. Who is most likely to have the finds to buy property as an investment? The elderly.
By increasing house building to 200,000 a year the housing market would not be overcrowded. House prices would therefore fall due to more being on the market. This would be great news for those without houses who would get cheaper rent and mighty even (god forbid be able to buy a house). For those with a house it would lower the value of their house creating negative equity, which actually isn't a problem if you buy a home to live in; it's only a problem if it was bought as an investment. But it would cause outrage mostly in those who buy to let; in other words mostly the elderly; who are the Tories core vote.
To Sum up to build more houses would lose the Tories a massive amount of supporters and logically votes; something they just will not risk. Add to that the fact that politicians are almost exclusively home owners and landlords and therefore would not want the value of there own properties to fall... and you can see why they will absolutely not increase house building.
We need to decide as a country if homes should be an investment or somewhere to live? I for what it is worth, I believe we need homes for people to live in; and if those using them to make a quick buck lose out in the battle to help the homeless get a roof over their head so be it...
