"Residents can appeal..." - erm how? Most people would have NO idea how to do so, legal aid has been massively cut back and restricted for such matters, most people don't feel confident risking "pissing off" their landlord for fear of losing their home! We've already massive issues with illegally managed and revenge evictions.
"This is about long term thinking" absolutely - but the problem is our govts Cba to think long term, they think only in terms of winning the next election - and that's partly our fault! Yes in electing shitty mps and parties, but also in not holding them when they're in power to promises made, in not telling our representatives while they're in the jobs what we want them to do, what the problems are.
We need to tell them to quit short term, false economy, sticking plaster nonsense!
There's much discussion on mn of various political topics, but that's largely meaningless if we don't also get those opinions and yes - demands - across to the people in a position to make a difference.
I'm currently housebound (pardon the pun/irony) due to ill health and so feel quite, well very, limited in what difference I can make, but I try to do what I can. I support shelter (who've helped me greatly) by sharing fundraising info, signing petitions, raising awareness. I communicate regularly with my MP and Msp on a variety of issues including this one, as someone who's been homeless twice, raised by parents who grew up in council flats, and who is now in social housing myself.
I also really strongly feel we need to demand that mps DON'T have any vested interests while serving as OUR REPRESENTATIVES.
Far far too many mps are property developers, landlords and similarly have vested interests in keeping housing prices high, housing at a premium, rights and laws on the side of the housing industry RATHER than on the side of tenants and residents. It's plain corrupt as evidenced by how these mps VOTE on ANYTHING that relates to housing- seriously please do go and check out which MPs are involved in the housing industry and then LOOK at how they vote on eg giving tenants more stability.
We, as a society, ABSOLUTELY CANNOT expect people, families, communities to live in shit quality and size of homes, without security & stability and seriously expect the people & families in those homes to then stay healthy, able to make the most of education opportunities and employment opportunities.
And to those less concerned with the rights and decent fair treatment of these people, our society can't AFFORD to be so short sighted on this - because long term dealing with the fallout from such shitty policies on housing is actually bloody expensive! So even if your primary concern is money, you're still getting it wrong!
Maslow's hierarchy of need, BASIC human rights, or indeed basic bloody common sense! Means we all know that decent, clean, habitable, adequately sized homes are the very foundation that allows us to function.
I am no economist or financial expert but I have had brief discussions in real life and on SM with such experts. I asked them if I were somehow misunderstanding something in thinking (at a very basic level) that actually a sustained and well funded programme of building much more social housing would benefit our country and its economy in several ways
Creating jobs
Providing the opportunity to teach the younger generation the skills to do so meaning they build their cv
Bringing the cost of housing down overall
Stimulating the economy - because the people working in the construction of these homes would spend the money earned, spending on materials and machinery, maybe even (hopefully) having British companies provide the materials/equipment to build the homes, tenants having more spare money due to lower rents that they'd spend elsewhere etc
Reducing expenditure on health, social care, policing etc because people with secure housing are then able to access any support needed and their health and wellbeing generally would be better.
They did say it was a bit more complex (I'm sure) but that basically yea it would greatly benefit the country.
So I return to my point about mps should be not focusing on preventing legislative changes which disadvantage the private housing industry but instead SERVING US by passing legislation to ensure secure, good quality, affordable housing.