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Why Britain doesn’t build

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Re: Why Britain doesn’t build

#41

Post by bluescrn »

notahacker wrote: post #23
bluescrn wrote: post #2

There's loads of houses being built in the UK (often of questionable quality, built for maximum profit, packed into minimal amounts of space). It may still not be enough to match the demand, but the real problem is we don't seem to be building any infrastructure to support these homes. More people and more homes requires more roads, railways, hospitals, police stations, power stations, sewer capacity, even reservoirs…

Infrastructure isn't perfect, but we talk about housing shortages because people earning double the national average wage rent rooms with other professionals in houses designed for a single family whilst trying to save up double their annual wage for a deposit on a >25 year mortgage on a flat. Whereas for all the UK's infrastructure problems, power brownouts due to lack of generation capability or lack of a local pol…

This comment shows up the other issue, the London-centric nature of UK politics.

If you think the UK transport network is OK, but pick the most extreme examples of housing costs, you're probably a Londoner. The housing situation is awful elsewhere, but still a long way from London's extremes.

But if you live elsewhere, try getting anywhere by road or by rail, and it's usually a grim experience.

Re: Why Britain doesn’t build

#42

Post by mordae »

blakblakarak wrote: post #17
robertlagrant wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: I originally said Britain built 30k houses last year, which commenters have corrected. Thank you! I don't really understand all this. Surely the main reason for a lack of housing is the difference between house demand (e.g. Britain took in 606k people in net immigration last year) compared to house supply (Britain built I think around 200k houses last year). The state shouldn't need to build houses (in fact it…

The state does need to make houses to provide for lower paid people who do critical jobs.

Lower paid... critical jobs... State.

Hahaha. Can't we just ditch capitalism altogether? It can't even pay and provide housing to people who perform critical jobs.

Or are we discussing building barracks for slaves?

Re: Why Britain doesn’t build

#43

Post by [deleted] »

bluescrn wrote: post #21
jamespo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The graphs in the article indicate there aren't loads of houses being built.

Depends on the definition of 'loads'. For residents of small to medium sized towns and villages (where there's plenty of land available), the rapid sprawl and worstening traffic is incredibly visible.

[deleted]

Re: Why Britain doesn’t build

#44

Post by quickthrower2 »

nindalf wrote: post #15
dairylee wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The infrastructure is often insufficient for existing homes nevermind for any expansion. I've recently moved house but I'm having to stay registered to my Dentist & Doctors 30 miles away because the wait list to get registered in my new town is months.

Doctor only 30 miles away? Luxury! It’s unrealistic for me to get treatment from a GP in my area so I simply travel thousands of miles away to another country once a year for treatment. Thousands more homes being built as well, so this isn’t changing any time soon.

Travelling to another country for treatment sounds like the luxury to be honest. The unluxury would be no health care, or travelling 100 miles within the UK by train/bus.

Re: Why Britain doesn’t build

#45

Post by hsjqllzlfkf »

danjac wrote: post #26

This is an interesting political trap for the ruling Conservatives that they have made for themselves. The traditional Conservative voter is a home-owner. So you might be a rabid socialist in your youth, but once you get a job, save up for a deposit, and buy your own home, you eventually transition to become yet another middle-aged Tory voter. That pipeline is now broken - young people are unable to save up for their…

Sounds like a problem that will fix itself? According to you, do nothing and the Tories will be out.

Re: Why Britain doesn’t build

#46

Post by [deleted] »

bloqs wrote: post #31

Something cannot both be a good investment and accessible to all. The decision was made to make them a good investment, and thus our lazy, entitled economy that is addicted to foreign goods and services became what it is today.

[deleted]

Re: Why Britain doesn’t build

#47

Post by jwestbury »

dumpsterdiver wrote: post #40
muteor wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just built over 1000 homes near me, but not one dentist or doctors. Now the small local surgeries are expected to take these new households on. Again government policy not holding up to community needs.

To be fair, you can't "build" a dentist or a doctor like you can a home. First the homes come, then the residents move in. Those residents will have demands, such as health and dental care. Once those demands are heard, the doctors and dentists will finally build their offices.

Sure, this is true in a purely free-market world. But this is also why a purely free-market approach doesn't functionally work in many cases. This problem is solvable by government intervention.

Re: Why Britain doesn’t build

#48

Post by lucideer »

robertlagrant wrote: post #10
ggm wrote: post #3

I find the economic reductionism in housing planning really irritating. It's not like other public utility functions, but it is damn close to a fundamental and is included in human rights declarations. What kind of state throws up it's hands and claims "it can't" fix housing when states can do precisely that? Thatcher's revolution in council housing is a cesspit of counterfactual outcomes. It made individual househol…

Note: I originally said Britain built 30k houses last year, which commenters have corrected. Thank you! I don't really understand all this. Surely the main reason for a lack of housing is the difference between house demand (e.g. Britain took in 606k people in net immigration last year) compared to house supply (Britain built I think around 200k houses last year). The state shouldn't need to build houses (in fact it…

> The state shouldn't need to build houses (in fact it doesn't; it just uses your tax money to pay private companies to build houses). It should just make the building and zoning rules simple enough that it's possible to make money from building houses and selling them, and let people get on with it.

This is the modern wisdom in the west - it's the approach taken by many governments since the Reagan era (not just in the UK) and it's demonstrably unsuccessful in almost every metric except one: votes. Which is the only reason it continues. It panders to those who already hold assets, while doing very little to move the dial for those who need shelter.

Migration is not a new phenomenon; citing it as an excuse for the utter failure of modern housing policy is disingenuous.

Re: Why Britain doesn’t build

#49

Post by lll-o-lll »

ggm wrote: post #3

I find the economic reductionism in housing planning really irritating. It's not like other public utility functions, but it is damn close to a fundamental and is included in human rights declarations. What kind of state throws up it's hands and claims "it can't" fix housing when states can do precisely that? Thatcher's revolution in council housing is a cesspit of counterfactual outcomes. It made individual househol…

It’s the whole western world at the same time. The same policies, the same social outcomes. It makes me question whether there is any real democracy; did we all just happen to make the exact same decisions in lock step since the 70s by incredible coincidence?

And it’s not as if the eventual negative outcomes of housing costs continually outstripping wage growth weren’t obvious and growing year on year. Who is actually in control here? Is it blind forces pushing us to an inevitable outcome? The Illuminati? Lizard people?

Is there any free will or are we just doomed to follow this course to who knows where? Can’t we figure out what we actually want as societies, and make policy that matches it?

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