another few days in the housing crisis (an utterly broken system)

 

'without enough social housing, every other area in the system bottlenecks. as a result, the country is hitting one shameful record after the next, with 145,800 children homeless in temporary accommodation – the highest number ever – private rents at record highs and rising evictions...' 

- polly neate, chief executive of shelter.

'these mandatory offers of private housing... push families into a cycle of homelessness as they are being forced back into insecure private housing, which is likely to have been the cause of their homelessness in the first place. this behaviour by councils is almost certainly unlawful, but devastating cuts to legal aid mean that homeless people cannot access the legal representation they need.' 

- elizabeth wyatt, a spokesperson for hasl (housing action southwark and lambeth)

and so it goes (another few days in the housing crisis).

it is, as a friend remarks, 'an utterly broken system'. 

never mind it will all soon be over and a reign of perfect felicity will begin. (said horsemouth the not in the least bit sarcastic). 

nonetheless it remains that the housing crisis is eminently solve-able.

it is not beyond the wit and wisdom of human beings to build houses.

really all it would take (asserts armchair general horsemouth) is a vast campaign of council house building to be let at social rent. this would collapse the super-profits possible in the private rental market and as this is a driver of demand for housing it would reduce house prices and rents (as a multiple of in proportion to yearly earnings) to (more) affordable levels. 

more than a quarter of a million social rent homes in england have been lost in the last decade, according to analysis of government statistics. at a minimum they need replacing. 

whether the incoming government is going to do anything like that is another matter.

this is a problem in ireland too (horsemouth's sources tell him) and right across europe and the states (aka. nomadland). broadly artificial scarcities have been created that enable rent-taking at a vast level. the 'ordinary' people are becoming poorer and have been since the mid 80ies.

meanwhile a luxury penthouse in manchester is named after friedrich engels. the condition of the working class in england friedrich? barely holding on. . 

it's bright sunny morning. horsemouth is enjoying his coffee. he has been out and watered the garden and in the green house. he has taken the milk and orange juice over to the fridge in the garage.  the black cat has been around (what it is up to horsemouth has no idea).