Tue 3 Oct 2017, 03:47 AM | Posted by editor
As Tory Chancellor Philip Hammond follows on from Theresa May in making a speech in defence of the free market, we ought to welcome a debate about which economic system best deals with the day to day needs of the majority of the population – socialism or capitalism. When Hammond says that Labour “threatens our prosperity”, the “our” in the sentence refers only to the prosperity of the rich and super-rich. Recent figures in the housing sector show the complete dislocation of the free-market and its inability to deal with the housing shortage in Britain.
The Tories have spent billions of pounds to subsidise house-buying for those already well off and it has only added to the difficulty of young people finding an affordable home. Even the Financial Times was moved to comment that “since Help to Buy began in 2013, the gap between household formation and home building rates has persisted. Ratios of prices to incomes, and rents to average incomes, have become worse.”
According to new figures published by Savills, the estate agent, private landlords now get more than twice the amount in rent as banks get from homeowners in mortgage payments. Over the last year alone, private renters in buy-to-let properties paid £54bn to their landlords, an increase of £14bn over the last five years, as buy-to-let has allowed the well-off to get even better off.
In London, the disparity is even more stark, with private renters paying four times the total being paid in mortgages.
Young people are particularly badly hit by high private-sector rents, paying £24bn, about half of Britain’s total rent bill. According to the Resolution Foundation think-tank, the average share of family income paid in rent has trebled in the last 50 years.
There has never been a better time for the Labour Party to introduce rigorous standards for rented accommodation and RENT CONTROLS linked to pay and family income. For socialists, a roof over a family’s head is a basic human right, not something left to the whim of the market. Labour must give a firm commitment to make sure that human right is fully met.
