any sign of new thought

a grauniad writer has written a new chapter on how to solve the housing crisis 

can you detect any sign of new thought in it?

1. an annual property tax, replacing stamp duty and council tax.
2. transform empty buildings 
3. build public housing. 'the homes that are built should be the ones that most directly and quickly address need – those built for rent rather than for sale, especially affordable public housing'. 
4. use land well.
5. build sustainably
6. build beautifully.

the problem with proposal 3 is that it is not a bribe to the voters. it has the advantage of not lowering house prices for sale (the feelgood factor for much of middle england and the thing that would really make a difference to the housing shortage). 

it is important to be clear that the government (and the housebuilders) are not going to build one and a half million houses by the end of this parliament - that would have the effect of lowering house prices and thus the profits of the housebuilders. that just leaves the social housing sector who are knackered after years of central government attacks on their rental income and risk averse after the bad publicity of criticism of the poor maintenance of their housing stock (both old and newly built). 

horsemouth would take a side order of 2 also (dealing with empty homes). since the outlawing of squatting in residential property (and given persistent oversupply in the office building sector) there is vastly more empty property than there used to be. 

meanwhile progress is happening on the EPC C stuff 

there's now a report for all the flats in houses and for 7 of the 8 houses. (there just remains the difficult one to do). horsemouth is trying to work out how much the government will pay and how much the communal endeavour will have to pay prior to the opening of negotiations with the government. 

ok horsemouth will post this up and then get on with that.