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Council housing for the 21st Century

“Council housing for the 21st Century”

2. How does it fit with Compass’ core beliefs of equality, solidarity, democracy, freedom, sustainability and well being?

All of the above Now, more than ever, we need council housing. The free-market approach to housing policy has utterly failed, leaving millions of people to suffer. Decent housing is a human right and council housing is the best way to provide it because it is democratic and sustainable in a way that no other tenure is. As such, it promotes equality, freedom and well-being. Millions of British people benefited from council housing in the 20th century, we must not deny it to the next generation in the 21st.

3. How does it build the institutions of social democracy, like social groups and collective and cooperative forms of ownership and control?

Council housing, by its very nature, is intrinsically linked to social democracy. The proud history of the tenants’ movement demonstrates that council housing fosters genuine community participation and involvement. Council housing is owned by the community and can be controlled via the ballot box.

4. How much will it cost or raise and where will any cost come from?

Council housing is already self-financing, but can be made better for the 21st century with a level of public investment at a fraction of the cost of policy alternatives. The multi-billion pound attempts to salvage the property market are not only hugely expensive, they don’t work. £2 billion would enable the building of thousands of genuinely affordable and sustainable homes, with a revenue flow in perpetuity, while saving £ billions in housing benefit, health care, energy costs and environmental damage - and giving decent jobs to thousands.

5. Which groups in the electorate are likely to support or oppose this measure? Is there any polling evidence you have on this?

This is a policy that doesn’t need a focus group. Whenever people are asked the question in an unloaded way, they express their support for council housing - now more than ever. There are 4 million people living in council housing and up to 5 million on waiting lists, with more joining the queue every day as the result of repossessions. The demand for new council housing is supported by all the major trade unions and has been endorsed overwhelmingly at Labour Party conferences. That’s a mandate.

6. Is there a place or country where it’s worked? Please provide some information.

It’s worked in the UK. In the USA, the failure to build decent public housing has been an economic and social disaster and this sad truth will continue to be demonstrated in the years to come. The fact that Britain has a proud tradition of a right to decent housing within the the mainstream of the welfare state gives us a head-start. We can rebuild it!

7. What are the three main arguments in favour/against it?

1. Relieve housing need and all the social problems that result from homelessness and poor housing conditions.
2. Inject some balance and rationality into the madness of the property market.
3. Build homes that can genuinely contribute to climate change reduction.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.