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Sandcastles in the sky - the UK/London housing market and growing social inequality

Sandcastles in the sky - the UK/London housing market and growing social inequality. Danny Dorling, University of Oxford November 23 rd , 2013 The Equality Trust, Loman Street, London.

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Sandcastles in the sky - the UK/London housing market and growing social inequality

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  1. Sandcastles in the sky - the UK/London housing market and growing social inequality Danny Dorling, University of Oxford November 23rd, 2013 The Equality Trust, Loman Street, London

  2. Robert Frank’s analysis of 2001, in hindsight, explains much about why the USA housing market is as it is today In the USA a society was created in which it made sense to always want more, just to stay still. Frank, R. 2001, Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class, lecture presented in October 2001. Later published as a book.

  3. The result has twisted thinking “Please don’t … ‘make me sound like a prat for not knowing how many houses I’ve got.’ David Cameron, 2009

  4. We have been here before, in 1934

  5. We may be here again, but nowworld-wide ?

  6. The USA is still in crisis

  7. Housing stands empty, refurbs on hold “I love you, will you marry me” – now an advertising slogan, Park Hill Flats, Sheffield

  8. Disrepair rises when homes are empty

  9. An unpredictable rollercoaster:

  10. This will damage health. Already mortality is rising in the UK (age 85+)

  11. The crisis reflects income inequality

  12. Greed grows wealth inequalityBuildinganotherbubble

  13. For which the poorest currently pay the most.Paying more in more unequal countries.

  14. It is not too few homes From Figure 6 of: Relative housing inequality: The decline and return of housing space inequality in England and Wales, 1911-2011 Rebecca Tunstall Director, Centre for Housing Policy, University of York (in press) Inequality in distribution of rooms per person for people in private households in England and Wales, percentile ratios, 1911-2001

  15. Until housing is better sorted For instance – a few suggestions for England: • Extend the current council tax bands up to band Z with a view to transforming the tax into a fairer national land and property tax (looking to Ireland on registration). • Enhance the existing “Right to Sell”, where mortgagees have the right to stay in their home and become tenants rather than face eviction. • Second homes, holiday homes and empty commercial property need to be included in a fairer property tax system to discourage waste.

  16. For provision, not profit: • Spare bedrooms should not be taxed. Everyone should be able to live in a home with a spare room for visitors. We already have enough rooms. • An enhanced home building program will be needed if more people come into the UK than leave, as has been the case in recent years. But there are enough rooms and homes for those who are in the UK. • Benefits are so low that they need now to rise faster than wages which must rise faster than salaries which can rise faster than home prices, and rents need to stay still, if not fall. All these are out of balance.

  17. Housing is about rights and freedom • Greater income and wealth equality would be improved by the introduction of rent controls which would also reduce housing benefit bills massively. • Squatting and all other acts that are done purely to seek shelter and not to steal items for profit should again be a civil not a criminal offence. • Illegal actions by landlords and bankers that deprive people of their home and shelter should become criminal rather than civil offences. • We have to recognize that housing is central to environmental sustainability. When we build be need to build for the very long term.

  18. Thank you for listening… Again and again and again, when we look into an issue that we think is about something else it turns out to be inequality that underlies so much of what is really going wrong. “All that is Solid: The Great Housing Disaster” Coming soon… to a town near year, probably in February 2014.

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