Comments on: London renters get “anti-tenant” adverts removed from tube

By: Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 11:17:14 +0000

Janet Marks.

Are you for uncontrolled immigration? Yes or no.

By: Janet Marks

Janet Marks — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 04:49:52 +0000

Abolish Right to Buy, build more social housing, tax landlords who leave properties empty. Stop blaming immigration for housing crisis – we need immigrants who work and pay taxes. This is a home-grown Conservative Party problem, with some blame going to New Labour because they failed to overturn Thatcher’s rule against Local Authorities using RTB monies on building social housing. This has all been made much worse by the coalition govt bringing in reductions on Housing Benefit and Section 21 (which thankfully will be abolished soon).

By: Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 18:57:07 +0000

Should have been RTB abolition must be implemented immediately.

By: Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 18:55:40 +0000

RTB must be implemented immediately but more than that a legal way must be found to keep properties in the public sphere in perpetuity. Immigration must be curtailed strictly and reduced to the bare minimum or there is no answer.

By: Tom Sacold

Tom Sacold — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 12:06:56 +0000

With immigration currently running at over 600,000 per year, rather a lot of our precious ‘green and pleasant land’ is going to be concreted over.

By: Patrick Newman

Patrick Newman — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 11:43:59 +0000

Yes there is an answer that will deal with the bulk of the problem – stop RTB, build more council dwellings. We are currently building less than 2000 a year (England) but selling over 10,000 per annum. At one point in pre-Thatcher age, we built 93,000 in one year. At least 50,000 is needed each year. Tackle the private rented market by greater security of tenure and rent controls. Where landlords decide to exit the market the property has to be offered first to the council or the tenant at market value.

By: Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 05:16:53 +0000

Could it not be that there are a number of factors which have brought about the present situation and no simply one? Firstly the basis of the problem is that amongst most commentators who can’t remember a UK before Margaret Thatcher’s first election victory in 1979 and, and this is very clear from most of the commentary, assume that there was an abundance of council housing. That most certainly was not the case as is highlighted by the film ” Cathy Come Home” which led to the organisation Shelter being formed. The 1970’s were the decade of a massive squatting campaign which saw at least 30,000 people taking over largely council owned premises in London alone.

Homelessness isn’t new and there is a very good series The Secret History of Our Streets which can be seen on You Tube which shows historical homelessness. Episode 6 is about East London and particularly good. The factors that have led to the present situation are,

1) The sale of council owned property since 1980.

2) The lack of social house building since.

3) A free market in land and the belief that markets are the solution to everything.

4) The acceptance of the mainstream parties of all of the above.

5) The rise in population which in London is reaching pre WW2 levels.

6) Immigration which is pushing that population increase and is by far the biggest factor as family sizes have been falling for years.

7) As has been pointed out above another contributory factor is speculation, buy to leave. I can confirm that my company, I’m a chartered surveyor, is regularly approached by foreign investors or their representatives to buy properties to be left empty. The theory is that these things are like shares and unit trusts or commodities not a certain architect’s ” Machines for Living In”.

What is then the answer? The answer is that there isn’t one except, at the moment more of the same, including the claims of politicians that they are going to solve the housing problem which as we know they can’t which makes them all liars. Hence the old saying, ” Don’t tell Mama I’m a politician, she thinks I play the piano in a whorehouse!”

By: john hardman

john hardman — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 23:37:27 +0000

THE route cause is tory policies since thatcher.uncontrolled greed over peoples needs. nothing to do with immigration.

By: Martyn

Martyn — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 22:57:42 +0000

The root cause of the housing crisis is that housing has become the driver of the UK’s capitalist economy – houses are bought and sold as investments, not as places to live.

By: Tom Sacold

Tom Sacold — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:06:54 +0000

There’s lot to agree with in this article. But the root cause of the housing crisis is uncontrolled immigration.