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Letters
Why Britain’s housing market is crumbling
Steve Smart, Ken Baldry, Alan Gent and Margaret
Dickinson respond to a piece by Simon Jenkins on the chronic shortage of homes
and climbing prices
‘Now that most jobs are temporary, people increasingly
do not move to where they work but commute,’ writes Margaret Dickinson.
Letters
Tue 17 May
2022 17.52 BST
Simon
Jenkins largely misses the point in analysing Britain’s housing situation
(Michael Gove is right about one thing: building more homes won’t solve
anything, 13 May). Yes, it is true that many owners are underoccupying their
homes, but he devotes one cursory sentence to our desperately inadequate social
housing provision, and none at all to the large and growing private rented
sector.
For 40-plus
years, our governments have persisted in the absurd notion that the market,
with a little help from housing associations, would supply our housing needs.
The result is that there is a chronic shortage of affordable housing
everywhere, particularly for rent. And the private rented sector in the UK,
unlike elsewhere, suffers from tenant insecurity, unregulated rents and poor
conditions – while receiving huge benefit subsidies that add nothing to
physical provision.
In contrast
to our widespread owner underoccupation, many UK households, especially
renters, suffer overcrowding, and our modern housing has woeful space standards.
Market developers will never address the shortage, since they benefit from the
inflated prices and margins that it produces.
Steve Smart
Malvern,
Worcestershire
In his largely sensible article, Simon Jenkins
fails to mention the physical inefficiency of much of London’s housing. We live
in a lovely Georgian terrace with ideal proportions but thin, jerry-built
Victorian walls – hopeless conservers of heat. The conservation area and
listed-building status prevent us from adding the type of stoneware cladding
that can retain the attractiveness of the area while making it possible to
install heat pumps, for example. Joined-up thinking is lacking, as usual.
Ken Baldry
London
Simon Jenkins makes some good points about
housing taxation, but it’s not enough to suggest that the countryside of the
north is sufficiently alluring to promote social mobility. The best economies,
such as Germany, have many city “hubs” to ensure both an even spread of
population and, more importantly, wealth. If London wishes to retain its
position as a leading financial centre, then it must lose everything else. Thus
parliament, which is crumbling anyway, must move to Birmingham. Manchester,
already a media hub, would gain further investment.
Other areas
of the economy would be established in different parts of the country. This
represents a true version of levelling up, which of course will not even start
under this government.
Alan Gent
Cheadle,
Cheshire
Simon Jenkins is right to point out that the
housing crisis is linked to the failure of levelling up, but does not explore
how both are related to wider policy failures.
One
important factor is the shift away from secure employment. In the past, people
taking up a job somewhere other than their current home might expect to stay
for long enough to put down roots. Now that most jobs are temporary, people
increasingly do not move to where they work but commute, an arrangement that
reduces their ability to contribute to social and cultural life either where
they work or where they live. This phenomenon particularly affects small or
medium-sized towns with limited job opportunities.
Margaret Dickinson
London
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