Labours New Housebuilding Project Announced - Homes Not Housing Benefit

DecentLivingWage

At last, Labour's big new housebuilding project is revealed, along with plans to tackle racketeering landlords, move housing benefit spending to home building and give tenants support and power to protect themselves from leeching landlords! In Guardian today ... some light at the end of this dreary old dragging recession (which even the IMF now says is handicapped by Osbornes miserable economic plan!) Go for Growth they said , but he hasn't. Housebuilding will get Britain moving again and help to stop construction skills from rotting into oblivion.

C_Mababejive

Dont trust Labour. It was the Bar Steward socialist Prescott who launched the pathfinder scheme which saw homeowners thrown out of their homes and their homes demolished,the land sold to developers at cheaper prices.

Generali

From what I read, Labour's plan seems to be to hope that the OBR have got their figures wrong on growth, then that despite a growing economy the Tories still lose the election.

Then they will take the extra money the private sector has made and spend it on a bunch of schemes to bribe the voters with their own money.

It's funny how many people look back to council houses as being good things. They were dreadful for the most part.

It was councils that bulldozed terraces that people wanted to live in and replaced them with tower blocks (including Roman Point). If you were fortunate enough to get a house then you couldn't fix anything: it all had to be done by the council. As a result of their gross inefficiency and ineptitude people were living in houses that were rotting around them as the council couldn't or wouldn't keep them up.

The best thing Maggie did was selling them off.

michaels

Is this the same labour who oversaw the collapse in social house building and limited total housebuilding during a time of unprecedented boom in house prices?

Generali

michaels wrote: »

Is this the same labour who oversaw the collapse in social house building and limited total housebuilding during a time of unprecedented boom in house prices?

Can't be. Nobody would trust that bunch of muppets with a country again.

I heard they were running a B&B in Eastbourne.

Thrugelmir

How can Labour have a housing strategy when they've no plans to fix the economy nor tackle the budget deficit?

Just another borrow to spend proposal.

the_flying_pig

Generali wrote: »

...It's funny how many people look back to council houses as being good things. They were dreadful for the most part. ...

not entirely sure what you mean. there are currently around 4m people in 'social housing' [i.e. not HB-funded 'private' renting] and another couple of million on waiting lists.

this stock is in the overwhelming main perfectly decent and even if it wasn't: (a) really it ought to be slightly inferior to the 'private' stuff, right, to give people an incentive to get out of it?; and (2) almost anything would be better & fairer than the absurd £25bn a year HB bill. it's totally insane.

Generali wrote: »

...The best thing Maggie did was selling them off....

disagree very strongly. it's given us a no more adequate, and vastly more expensive to the taxpayer, social housing solution.

grizzly1911

Generali wrote: »

to bribe the voters with their own money.

=


The [STRIKE]best[/STRIKE] thing Maggie did was selling them off.

Same thing.

Same goes for the privatisation deliberately sold on the cheap to encourage Joe Public to buy em up.

Selling off the family silver. Assets they had already paid for once.

Graham_Devon

I gave up at the very first sentence. Labour have said some words. They have not started a "project"!

Can't agree that council housing was the worst thing ever. Depends what you wanted to see out of them. Certainly from a capitalist viewpoint, they would be the worst thing ever, no money to be made.

But from a family point of view, they really did seem to provide good, solid foundations for a growing family at a cost which didn't cripple the family. Good size rooms, good gardens to play in. Forgetting about money for a second, I sometimes wish I had that opportunity instead of having to look at flats with a "balcony" that you can't even stand on.

No chance to go out and dig in the garden, grow some tomatoes in the greenhouse, eat worms, run around playing indians and cheifs with your home styled wigwam and then dipping into the paddling pool later while supping your lemonade with a big chunk of ice cream in the glass.

No. I'd much prefer the opportunity to grow up in a council house and o all of that than look at a car park from a "balcony" that you can#t even fit a plant pot on.

antrobus

DecentLivingWage wrote: »

At last, Labour's big new housebuilding project is revealed, along with plans to tackle racketeering landlords, move housing benefit spending to home building and give tenants support and power to protect themselves from leeching landlords! In Guardian today ...

Really? Where exactly?

DecentLivingWage wrote: »

..
some light at the end of this dreary old dragging recession

We're not in a recession.

DecentLivingWage wrote: »

...
(which even the IMF now says is handicapped by Osbornes miserable economic plan!) Go for Growth they said , but he hasn't. Housebuilding will get Britain moving again and help to stop construction skills from rotting into oblivion.

But house building already looks as if it's taking off. Aren't you pleased?

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2013/05/03/its-official-house-building-activity-in-recovery/

chewmylegoff

I agree with DLW. Labour's housebuilding plan will definitely fix the Eurozone economic malaise thus paving the way for an economic boom in the UK. I should think it will lead to general worldwide growth allowing Ed Milliband to claim that he saved the world...