Friday, 13 September 2013

The next housing crisis: what about all those bedrooms?

Successive governments’ reluctance to address the looming housing crisis is not news, but it creates news. The other day we had Tory chairman Grant Shapps, the man whose name sounds like a disease of the voluntary sector, making an international fool of himself for mistakenly and hysterically claiming the UN special rapporteur on housing had not spoken to government officials, and for calling the 'bedroom tax' by its popular name. It is an indefensible policy, so you can sorta see his problem.

More helpfully, on the same day Demos published a new report, The top of the ladder, on the UK’s ‘next housing crisis’ – the chronic undersupply of appropriate housing for older people. 

With some new polling and analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, the report claims that more than half (58 per cent) of people over 60 were interested in moving; and more than half (57 per cent) of those interested in moving wanted to downsize by at least one bedroom, rising to 76 per cent among older people currently occupying three-, four- and five-bedroom homes.

‘A lack of choice of suitable homes to downsize into is having a negative effect not just on older people’s health and wellbeing, but on the rest of the housing chain, as 85 per cent of larger family homes owned by older people only become available when someone dies.’

 

13 Sep 2013 13:39:53 | Older people, Social policy

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Moral poverty and the Archangel of Arrogance There’s been a sudden wintry chill in the weather here in south east England. I lay in bed the other night anticipating the winter and reflecting that I have a home that is reasonably efficient, I can keep warm and I expect to have enough to eat. Many thousands won’t, but I’m lucky. It’s a series of chances in my life – a few of which I may have been able to capitalise on to a small extent – that gives me relative comfort compared to those who are not lucky. I then wondered why some people attribute their own fortune to their own merit. Many people on the right probably lie in bed thinking ‘I deserve this, I’ve earned it. And those who don’t have a warm home and good food at their table simply don’t deserve it.’ It seems odd, but this attitude is commonly expressed in the media coming directly from the present government. Is there any articulated attitude that more clearly represents true arrogance? Step forward the Archangel of Arrogance, to provide a resonant example. Michael Gove, secretary of state for education, a man who is not best able to manage his thoughts, has been talking about people who use food banks: "I had the opportunity to visit a food bank in my constituency only on Friday and I appreciate that there are families who do face considerable pressures. "It's often as a result of some decisions that have been taken by those families which mean that they are not best able to manage their finances.” This is arrogance of the highest order, the kind that allows the proponent to claim authority on all sorts of matters at a whim. In this case it shines with moral zeal, it glistens with the oleaginous self-satisfaction of the true ideological dangerman, bent on the refeudalisation of England. And finally, a little moral coda. Seeking wider coverage of this story, I went to the Telegraph website and entered ‘michael gove food banks’ into the search box. Well you never know, they might have reported his riposte. This is what I was offered: Food and drink homepage www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/
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Envisaging the 'sidewalk-free' neighbourhood We're accustomed to the implication that car-dominated layouts damage local social relations by discouraging walking; but here's an unusual take on neighbourhood characteristics... An interviewee (aged 69) in research carried out into place and social connectedness, mentioned that 'she preferred that there were no sidewalks where she lived, because it deterred people from walking around her neighborhood.' One wonders whether a 'sidewalk-free' local environment might ever be seen pospectively as a desirable feature for someone wanting to relocate. Can you see the estate agents finding the right form of words? But where would people put their cars, if there were no pavements?

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