Thu 18 Jan 2018, 04:19 AM | Posted by editor
An article in the London Evening Standard yesterday shows why the so-called ‘market’ can never solve the housing crisis. In London in 2014, planning permission was granted for the construction of nearly 55,000 new houses. Three years later, work has started on just over half – under 30,000. The proportion of homes not built within London councils’ three-year limit is now 46 per cent, up from 33 per cent in 2016. Why is this? It is because the builders and developers are complaining that City Hall and local authorities are asking for too many of the houses being built to be “affordable”.
In other words, if the developers cannot make big profits out of building expensive homes, then houses will not be built. One spokesperson, from Linea Homes, commented, “It is understandable why some companies would choose to freeze building plans while they wait to see if the market improves”. The market will NEVER resolve the housing crisis. Labour must be committed to a nationalised building corporation, building social housing across the whole country, to be let at affordable rents.
