Cut through the spin & Govt is presiding over death of social housing
June 13th, 2012In November last year Cameron, unveiling his master plan to get everyone a mortgage and boost the housing market, proclaimed with gusto: “You always remember the moment, if you’ve done it, when you get the key to your first flat. It’s a magic moment. It’s a moment I want everyone in this country to have, not just the better-off”. That was then, 7 months ago. Today we are told by the Rowntree Foundation that the number of young people (18-30 year olds) owning their own properties will nearly halve from 2.4m in 2008 to 1.3m in 2020, while the number “living with Mum and Dad” rises will rise over the same period to 3.7m. At the same time Grant Shapps, the anti-housing minister, plans to stop ‘high-earning’ tenants from having a local authority-owned house in order to keep social homes for ‘those most in need’ or, to put it without the spin, to turn Council estates into transit camps for the poor. (more…)
