Petition the Prime Minister - vertical living projects

*JayBee*

Petition the Prime Minister to start vertical living projects that make more efficient use of urban land

Hello,

I have set up a petition on 10 Downing Street's e-Petitions website and would like you all to sign it.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Vertical-Living

The petition asks the government to build up rather than out when it comes to building the 3 million extra homes it requires. Our urban areas are very inefficient at present with houses under utilised. Sub-urban sprawl is swallowing up valuable land that will be needed for local food, bio-fuel crops and wind farms. With purpose built vertical living you can comfortably house more people per acre of land.

This is not a return to 1960s crumbling concrete tower blocks. This is the construction of well built, energy efficient towers. There will be green spaces between towers. Efficient transport systems.

Having spent some time living in Madrid I can vouch for vertical living. Most urban living in Spain is vertical with little urban sprawl. Cities are more compact but with no feeling of being overcrowded.

Please support this petition and tell your family and friends to do likewise.

Thank you for your support,

James Butler.

west_is_best

*JayBee* wrote: »

Petition the Prime Minister to start vertical living projects that make more efficient use of urban land

Hello,

I have set up a petition on 10 Downing Street's e-Petitions website and would like you all to sign it.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Vertical-Living

The petition asks the government to build up rather than out when it comes to building the 3 million extra homes it requires. Our urban areas are very inefficient at present with houses under utilised. Sub-urban sprawl is swallowing up valuable land that will be needed for local food, bio-fuel crops and wind farms. With purpose built vertical living you can comfortably house more people per acre of land.

This is not a return to 1960s crumbling concrete tower blocks. This is the construction of well built, energy efficient towers. There will be green spaces between towers. Efficient transport systems.

Having spent some time living in Madrid I can vouch for vertical living. Most urban living in Spain is vertical with little urban sprawl. Cities are more compact but with no feeling of being overcrowded.

Please support this petition and tell your family and friends to do likewise.

Thank you for your support,

James Butler.

Better still...... place "industrial wind development" around all the city's and huge town's and keep the "valuble land" for people who love and appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT industrialise the countryside for a measley small %'age of power!!!!!!!!

thescouselander

This is surely the worst idea I've heard in a long time. What you are describing is what the 60's tower blocks were supposed to be. The reason the experiment failed was not because they were made of concrete - there were unexpected social consiquences brought about from tower block style of living - this is well documented and the reasons why high rise blocks failed are now well understood.

We should not repeat this mistake again.

geordie_joe

thescouselander wrote: »

This is surely the worst idea I've heard in a long time. ..........
We should not repeat this mistake again.

Well said! There are still tower blocks around now and they are full of problems. We should NEVER build more.

daveyjp

"We should not repeat this mistake again"

Too late we already have.

Don't sign it! British cities are full of modern towerblocks - they are ugly, built cheaply to appeal to BTL markets and plenty are empty. They are the slums of the future.

Cardew

I have to agree with the 2 posts above - dreadful idea IMO.

The only high rise blocks that would work would be for up-market apartments in fashionable areas of the inner city where there would be(very expensive) full time security.

'Affordable' high rise blocks would quickly become a ghetto - as did many of those built in the post-war era; and I hardly think there is more social responsibility today.

thescouselander

daveyjp wrote: »

"We should not repeat this mistake again"

Too late we already have.

Don't sign it! British cities are full of modern towerblocks - they are ugly, built cheaply to appeal to BTL markets and plenty are empty. They are the slums of the future.

Alas, I fear you may be right!

Happychappy

Why not petition the Home Office to deal with Immigration correctly, track down all the imports who should have gone and make sure they do, this will then ensure the housing crisis is reduced considerably.

We can then carry on building bungalows and no need for 1960's style tower blocks, like Centre and Ronan Point

geordie_joe

Don't forget empty properties and second homes. Why should a person have a house they only use a few weeks of the year when others don't have a home.

In my town there are many properties that have been empty for years but developers go round knocking on doors asking if they can buy your garden! They are even buying houses with gardens and knocking the house down to replace it with 4 town houses!

They never buy the empty properties that have been empty for years because nobody knows who they belong to. Even the council doesn't,or at least that's what they told me the five times I tried to buy one of them.

Cardew

geordie_joe wrote: »

Don't forget empty properties and second homes. Why should a person have a house they only use a few weeks of the year when others don't have a home.

Come on Geordie - you sound like a throwback to the Soviet era;)

Why should people have 2 cars when some can't afford one car?

2 TVs?

A 3 bedroomed house when only a couple live there? - should they be forced to take in homeless people?

Why should people travel first class on a plane when others can't afford to fly?

Do you need Broadband when some can't afford a computer?

Etc Etc.

Thank goodness we can choose how to spend our money.

geordie_joe

Cardew wrote: »

Come on Geordie - you sound like a throwback to the Soviet era;)

That's because, for some things I am.

I don't mind how many cars/TVs/Computers people have. But I do think it's wrong that some people buy a second home as a holiday home and leave it empty 50 weeks of the year.

I don't mind people who buy second homes, or more, to rent them out and make a profit as this is providing a home for someone. But to buy a house with the intention of leaving it empty most of the year is criminal in my eyes.