To think housing in this country is fundamentally broken?

[BrokenHousingLogic]

Whether you rent privately, rent socially or own, it feels like the system isn’t really working for anyone.

• Rents are high and insecure
• Buying is out of reach for many
• Social housing is under strain
• Landlords and tenants feel pitted against each other
• Local authorities seem overwhelmed

It often feels like people are arguing with each other instead of addressing the fact that the whole structure is failing.

AIBU to think this goes beyond individual choices and points to a system-wide problem?

To think housing in this country is fundamentally broken?

Fixed your title for you

We don't need to build more houses. The priority should be stopping all immigration for a minimum of 2 years.
Another 850 people come across illegally yesterday. So there's another 300 homes gone immediately in 1 day.

@Talkinpeace Councils don’t have building departments. They won’t build anything. They rely on house builders who have the professional skills and trades. They just need to allow building via pp.

If only it were that simple.

Three years ago a developer wanted to build 400 houses on a field near us. Not prime agricultural land so maybe a possibility but it was thrown out because:

• We have no junior or senior school, no nursery, no church, no pub, no local employment. The closest schools are all more than 3 miles away.
• Our sewage plant is already over capacity and waste is tankered away at night
• The only road in is single track with passing places, and closed by flooding every winter
• Our electricity supply is above ground and fails frequently.

Councils have to do a little more than 'just grant pp'. They have to ensure developments will be viable.

Wrong @Talkinpeace . The Utilized Agricultural Area of the UK, ie the part that is actively farmed is 71%.

That produces approx 50% of our food needs, although if we cut out food waste, we produce about 66% of our needs, which still leaves us vulnerable in terms of food security

Yes, the housing crisis arose out of the blue when Labour took power. Before that, it was all candy castles and unicorns. 🙄

Of course it wasn’t, but that was a different government. One step Labour could have taken was to stop Right to Buy.

I'm not saying it hasn't been broken for a long time..I'm saying Labour has no one with any common sense to fix the country never mind a single issue like getting people out of expensive private rentals into affordable , well built homes.

Nail on the head. Lots of housing available in the wrong places because there are no jobs. Meanwhile, decent jobs have been centralised in London and a few other big cities where housing is a massive problem due to demand when people have had to move to those areas for the jobs. Simple solution is to "encourage" employers to re-open regional offices/depots etc and reverse the centralisation, maybe by grants, incentives, tax reliefs etc.

Of course not, but 13 years of Brown and Blair and they did bugger all to address the problems, in fact they made things worse with their policies and decisions. No sign that Starmer is doing anything to solve the problem either.

@taxguru People don’t want Rochdale over London. Not going to work.

We can't have all workers in London though, can we? Something needs to be done to spread the work around the country. The centralisation is utter madness. If there were good jobs in Rochdale, at least those brought up in and around Rochdale may stay there for jobs rather than being forced to move to London, at least the younger ones would be able to continue to live at home for a little while to save deposits rather than losing over half their wages in rent alone for a dingy room in a house share.

@taxguru They are not all in London now. BBC and many others have mined out. However we need a highly functioning capital city with strong international business links. We cannot just move business to where workers don’t want to be or aren’t available. London generates more tax than anywhere else by quite a long way. Destroy employment in London and everyone suffers. I’d be amazed if many Rochdale residents move to London! Most likely commute to Sheffield or Leeds. If employers thought run down towns were fertile recruitment areas, they would set up there. As it is, they don’t. There are of course many state employment opportunities and in many areas the state pays well and employs very many people.

There are always many who don’t want to work and they are in some areas more than others. I can see why some areas don’t attract employers.

Why would someone in Rochdale most likely commute to Sheffield or Leeds? @OhDear111 surely if anything they’d hop on the tram into the centre of Manchester?

it’s almost as if you haven’t the first idea where Rochdale actually is.

@boys3 You are right! I wrote Rochdale when I meant Rotherham! Brain addled by Christmas already. But the general point stands, neither town will be seeing vast numbers going to London. They have employment within reach and the blessing of cheap housing. If they work for nhs or are a teacher, residents can have a decent standard of living. Far more challenging in London. But we should not forget the huge tax payments by people who work in London as a % of tax take.

The proportion of OAPs in the country is rising.
Housing them appropriately is key to freeing up family homes.

A proper Social Rent market that allows people to move around easily
will reduce the gravitational pull of the South East

Only 18 posts in and it's the boomers fault yet again - boomer landlords

Just who are you going to blame when the boomer generation are gone

And this OAP is so fucked off with being blamed for everything I absolutely refuse to downsize and I will cut off my nose to spite my own face

Sick of the ageism so fucking sick of it

If you can afford to manage your home without claiming housing benefit or pension credit
fine, enjoy the space and the guest rooms.

Many cannot.

Many pensioners are living in private rented at huge cost to the local councils and unable to move to be nearer friends or family because of the insane costs.

Many pensioners are having to work into their 70's and 80's to pay commercial rents, when social housing would make their lives much better.

Many pensioners feel trapped in their large homes, unable to heat all of the rooms, but scared to take in lodgers.

The whole housing market is geared towards those able to buy from new builders whose profits are subsidised by policies such as help to buy.

It does not work.

I wonder how much paying housing benefits has skewed the housing in the U.K. if the poorest unemployed person is given enough money to cover their rent payments then they aren’t forced to move to a cheaper area. And if landlords know that regardless of rent the gov will step in and pay due to shortage of housing then where is the competition for tenants -there’s none.

Absolutely 💯agree. The ageism on Mumsnet in particular is getting so much worse.
In addition, there is constant building of flats in London that working Londoners cannot afford to buy/rent. It is way past time to stop allowing non resident overseas buyers from owning property in the UK.

Or make it illegal to own more than one house. Imagine how many surplus houses we would have then. Scrap stamp duty so the elderly are encouraged to downsize. Make it illegal for foreign investors to buy here and leave them empty.

I am 60.
I own my house outright and under occupy most of the year.

I am not ageist.
I just know that the money being spent by government of all levels on housing
is being misapplied.

Not sure what you mean by “broken”, as the market is largely defined by supply and demand.
demand is high as we have a growing population, which isn’t being matched by a similar growth in building.
The number of new builds has actually fallen since Labour came to power, so I don’t think we’re about to see a significant improvement in the near term.

Or make it illegal to own more than one house

How would that work re renting holiday houses? Of would there just be hotels?
What about tied houses? Would they also cease to exist?