The UK housing market is in ruins. Homeownership is an inconceivable fantasy to young adults, homelessness is rising, and Labour is failing to change anything. A Common Wealth think tank has exposed the ever-present role of overseas investors and private equity-backed developers in the government’s pledge to build 1.5 million homes. Equally, the prominence of the buy-to-let market has been emphasised, with 90 per cent of these rented properties inhabited by couples or single people as opposed to families. It doesn’t exactly sound like the end of a housing criss.
There is a paradoxical scene at play here; the government seeks to retain the idea of housing as a lucrative investment for both wealthy Brits and foreign investors, but also ensure that everyday working people are housed. This is simply not plausible as wealth inequality in the UK is growing more pronounced every day; the rich invest in second homes and property as a business endeavour, whilst young families struggle to get on the property ladder.
The government is happy to gloat about plans to create new towns across the UK, with little care for the ecological effects of building upon “no use scrub land” – you struggle to locate whether they truly believe that building alone will solve the nation’s problems or if it’s a tactical avoidance approach. Beyond NIMBYism, there is, of course, great importance to building new housing – but what is faster, and perhaps more valuable, is utilising pre-existing housing and adequate tax and planning mechanisms to grant housing to first-time buyers or those who require social housing. The truth is that building more houses within a skewed market monopolised by the rich does not adequately address the structural inequality that produced this crisis. Like most essential resources in the world, there is not a scarcity issue, but an issue of distribution. Where new houses are being built, they ought to be financially accessible to the working class, built for buying, not letting, and sustainably embedded into a fairer market and society.
The question remains: why is this Labour government tiptoeing around rent controls? It is simply remiss of a left-wing government to fail to represent those whose needs for simple housing are exploited by landlords. Of course, Labour implemented the Renters’ Rights Bill, but ultimately, it’s neither radical nor bold to end no-fault evictions and bidding wars. What is instead significant is envisioning a society in which individuals are not sleeping rough on the streets of a country that can afford to drop an extra £13.4 billion on military spending. The financialisation of plain necessities leads us astray from the truth that any political party with integrity should aim to give its citizens a roof over their heads – until there is a fundamental question posed about this very right, things may never change.
“Housing Crisis Mural – By Barbara Kruger” by Joey Z1 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.