The woman who lives in a shed: How London landlords are cashing in.

[Ryoko]

Article from the Guardian HERE

I'd just like to say it's all very well and good the councils moaning but what they are going to do other then put people out on the streets?, these people would be homeless or stuck in bedsits and B&Bs for years on end while languishing on the council housing lists.

My former flat was a studio one in a converted Victorian house, 22 flats some with there own shower/toilet others shared one on the ground floor, bed bugs, mice and carpet beetles, faulty fire alarm system that the fire brigade threatened legal action over several times and no lock on the main door, next door to me lived a family of 4 who washed their baby bottles in the communal washing machine, a man died after falling thru the banisters on the 2nd floor when drunk. Yet the council thought the place was fine, they inspected it several times, by the time I moved out about a quarter of the residents where put there by Ealing council while they wanted for a council place.

We need change, I see "Luxury apartments" springing up everywhere, yet years down the line these places still have the sales suite open, I see so called affordable housing being built that isn't affordable for those earning less then 30k a year (the national average is 24k) and even if they could afford them they are unsuitable for a family with young children as they have open plan kitchen and living room areas (what idiots design these things?). We need real affordable homes and a massive increase in council and HA places, we need to shake off the obsession with dolls house style homes and embrace the fact we are a massive city and the only way we can build is up with more high rise buildings.

Well, Wales isn't actually empty. I now lives there and yes, there is a shortage of housing here as well. We also have mainly Polish migrants living in sub standard accomodation. People in caravans and living together with extended families. There are few jobs here mainly farming and tourism. The population has grown by 9 million since the 1960's, we need homes for 5 million people. Do you think that the UK can build 5 million new affordable homes?????

Wales does have empty council houses tho I know someone who got a place within 6 weeks of applying and was given a choice of 3. That shows demand isn't as bad as say London where you wait many months or years and get housed by the councils in B&Bs and things while you wait.

But a while ago Ealing had a policy of offering people incentives to move to areas where councils have empty housing and the take up was poor (Northhampton I think), some people who did go moved back because they didn't like it.

The population of Wales is just over 3 million, are you saying that homes for 5 million people should be built all in wales???? Perhaps they should but I think that you will find that the politicians prefer to build wind farms here rather than affordable homes to meet the increasing need for energy in this country!

Ryoko Wales may have some empty houses but the social problems on some those housing estates are incredibly serious
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356247/Gurnos-Merthyr-Tydfil-The-British-estate-healthy-life-expectancy-just-58-8-years.html

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/04/10/life-on-benefits-on-merthyr-s-gurnos-estate-special-report-91466-28492662/

So you move the immigrants into an area where there may be empty houses but there is no work, high levels of deprivation etc. You just move the problem from a better off but more crowded part of the country to a less crowded but more deprived area.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17353478

I have family who live in the Valleys and I suspect the scope for significant new house building without a massive investment in infrastructure is very limited (added to which I doubt there is much flat land that isn't liable to flooding left in some of the valleys).

Chaz is totally right in what she says and right about the immigration system. I don't think it works well for immigrants either. It is not right to accept people into this country and place them in very deprived areas, this only compounds social problems.

See, we are all having a sensible debate about these issues. Why can't politicians do this????

I still think it's better then moving people with established links to an area, of course the take up in Ealing would be poor, we may have higher rates of unemployment then many other parts of London but we all so have a lot of people born and breed in the area along with a lot of "little this" areas (little India, little somalia, little japan, little Poland) filled with people who don't or hardly can speak English and they ain't going to want to move from their little community if given the choice.

I've lived in London all my life and I'm sick of the London centric nature of everything, theres a whole country out there wouldn't know it to look, frankly the transport system outside of London is balls in most places, there are very few company HQs elsewhere etc.

I don't think it's possible to ever build enough homes/renovate homes to fulfil demand in London, we are full and we need to get people out and stop people wanting to come here.

The Olympics should have been held elsewhere or many places, all over the country, might have had a "legacy" then, may have made a difference renovating places instead of building this silly park that will be left to rot after, show the world there are other places to do business then London.