CLLR JULIAN BRAZIL IS THE LEADER OF SOUTH HAMS DISTRICT COUNCIL
Housing is a massive problem on so many levels. There are the obvious issues of homelessness and the ever-increasing waiting lists, but it goes much deeper.
Key workers including teachers, nurses and carers can’t afford to live where their work is, and productivity suffers as employers struggle to employ.
How does it make sense when, for many, their disposable income goes on rent or mortgages, leaving little to spend in the local economy?
A home should not be seen as an investment or a luxury item. It’s not an optional extra. It’s something we all need. It’s a worry successive governments are failing with housing provision. It should be part of the contract the state has with its people.
You pay your taxes, and the state provides you with the infrastructure and services you need. The deal with housing needs fixing. What really disappoints me is the failure of any political party, including my own, to come up with any kind of plan that looks like it might work.
There’s a load of talk about building more houses. It’s like a competition to see who says they will build the most houses.
We’ve been trying that for decades and it just doesn’t work. Developers control the market, similar to OPEC and oil prices.
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They only build when they get the money they want, downing tools and land banking if prices start to drop. Large-scale housebuilders should be nationalised, and land prices massively reduced.
Councils should be given more powers to compulsory purchase land if landowners become too greedy. We need to take the profit out of house building.
Right to buy and right to acquire legislation has got to go. Good luck to you if you’ve been lucky enough to take advantage of these schemes, but the failure of government to replace these houses mean future generations are paying the price.
Once a council house has gone, it’s gone. We do see the ridiculous situation of local authorities in desperation buying a handful back, but it only highlights the madness of the whole thing. We’ve lost millions of council houses due to right to buy and they need to be replaced.
The supply and demand arguments are just too simplistic. We do need more houses, but the vast majority should be social housing.
If people aren’t forced into renting from private landlords, then inevitably rents will come down.
If private rents come down, then being a landlord is less attractive. Private landlords sell and you’ve increased supply. Just a thought.