Posted in Housing

How vested interests are prolonging the housing crisis

HousingThe hurling of paint at the Cereal Killer Café was, when everyone had finished either condemning or cheering it, profoundly depressing.

With good reason, no-one likes to be priced out of their town – especially when their replacements are comfortably middle-class, sell cereal and coffee at £4 a pop and indulge in fatuous and expensive pastimes. (With equally good reason, no-one likes seeing their cafe get a guerilla paint job.)

Yet many of those dubbed ‘hipsters’ represent more than anything else the proletarianisation of the middle class, eking out an edgy but ultimately impoverished existence in the creative or cultural sectors, crammed into flats that they are only slightly more able to afford than those who have been displaced. Even the money-making side of the cultural sector is under attack. Continue reading →

Now they’re aiming to go back to non-prime mortgage securities which caused crash

house price collapseIf you want evidence of how reckless and desperate bankers and investors have now become in search of higher yields, look no further than the widespread decision to return to a variant of the mortgage-backed securities which precipitated the 2008-9 crash.

Then it was sub-prime securities which were knowingly sold to households handicapped by low pay and insecure employment who predictably could not maintain their mortgage payments in a volatile labour market. Now it’s simularly financially disadvantaged individuals who are lured to take on non-prime mortgage-backed securities, those that do not meet even the minimum legislative standard. But of course they do offer high yields, and if the bankers can dispose of enough of these financial vehicles laced together with other dodgy securities, the risk has been passed on to some other half-witted investor. Continue reading →

Would a Rachel Reeves budget yesterday have been much different?

ReevesAhead of yesterday’s budget, in which George Osborne laid out £12bn of welfare cuts, a continued squeeze on public sector pay, the abolition of student maintenance grants and higher tuition fees, Labour’s ‘opposition’ front benchers went out of their way to agree with Osborne’s narrative of austerity.

Still reeling from the General Election, or now simply given psephological cover for her views, Reeves said that Labour should set a date for getting national debt back to 40% of GDP, the level it was at before the 2007 financial crisis. It is currently double that amount, meaning the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary is advocating huge cuts, and fast. Given that she is being touted as a potential Shadow Chancellor should Andy Burnham win, this should worry those of us in the party concerned with austerity and poverty.  Continue reading →

Why we need the Living Rent Campaign

11061994_1607183429533288_81335487503538362_nIn October 2014, The Living Rent Campaign was founded in response to a Scottish Government Consultation on a new tenancy type for the Private Rented Sector (PRS) in Scotland.

Put simply, we’re demanding the type of change private tenants in Scotland, and across the UK, have needed for too long now. Security of tenure – protection from unjust ‘no fault’ evictions – and the re-introduction of the rent controls Thatchers’ Government scrapped so long ago. Continue reading →

Housing is now financialised, like the rest of market capitalism

Green plastic monopoly houses, by 123rf.comThe enforced sell-off of housing association homes, at the same enormous discounts as under Right to Buy (£70,000+ for a flat and up to £102,000 for a house) is driven by the two Tory goals, not only to act as bribes for voters at election time, but also to bring homes as an asset into play in the private market.

Implicit in that goal are two other Tory presumptions. One is that rents should also be determined by the private market, and the euphemism of ‘affordable rents’ is simply a con to distract from the truth that such rents are a teeny-weeny bit below market rates on their way to reaching full market levels. The other is that while tenancies are in principle inferior to ownership, Council tenancies which charge a ‘social’ rent of around half of market rates are anathema. Council tenants, like scroungers in the Tory panoply of poisonous misrepresentation, are pampered, not taking responsibility for their housing, and needing to learn the benefits of individualism. Continue reading →