An unspeakable evil had occurred: government’s money that were dedicated to be spent, weren’t. This, naturally, caused an outcry as “£817 million had gone unspent in social housing budget.”
I mean, how could have it happened that not all government’s money were spent invested! (Because, of course, these days spending is definitely synonymous with investing, especially when talking about the government’s check). This is incomprehensible.
Luckily for us, our MPs will stand up for the justice. They have requested the explanation from the ministers about how such an unforgivable sin could have happened. Money not being spent and – *gasp* – returned to budget is somehow… wrong. And unnatural.
And to be fair, it really does feel quite unnatural. We are so used to spending all the money that we no longer see saving as a virtue. We would rather go out to a holiday rather than start saving for our own housing deposit. Or we’d purchase a new car and become slaves for 5 years in car repayments rather than saving up for 6 months and purchasing a car that is not new, but 10 times cheaper.
Attitude like this is tripled in regards of public spending. Because, of course, the govt’s money is no one’s, really.
So, it is only clear that the members of parliament SHOULD be asking the ministers an explanation about why didn’t they spen… I mean, invested… all that money towards “the better future”.
Instead of, I don’t know, making an increase of this year’s Council Tax (which, as we know, is paid by the renters as well) 1% point lower this year or something and starting to enable the people start saving money for the house they definitely want, the MPs make sure that the answer to the lack of ability of the people to purchase a house will be given by our beloved and respected government.
As we know, the government’s efficiency of building public “affordable housing” is well founded and have never failed us once. Furthermore, the “affordable houses” the government builds – a nice euphemism for social housing – always are in highly desirable areas. Without a shadow of the doubt, social housing is also of high quality. I mean, EVERYONE wants to live in them. (just ask your neighbour or co-worker) So, we need more of them. Right?
Interestingly, just a few days ago Theresa May herself had promised that she will “restore the dream of home ownership” by warning the land developers against “sitting on land and waiting until the land prices go up”.
Now, ain’t this funny? We have those evil greedy land developers who do nothing but wait for their land values go up. At the same time, we have so many homeless – as in, people who do not own their own property – that there is, as Mrs. May named, “national housing crisis”. There is a lack of rental properties as well!
Luckily for all of us, Mrs. May knows what to do. She will threaten the developers to actually start building instead of doing nothing. If not, T. May then goes 1 step further and mentions that “their [developers’] records could count against them when they make bid with councils for new planning permissions”. That will show them!
I mean, various governmental regulations that prohibit from building because of A, B, C and Z; various Health and Safety requirements; requirements to allocate certain amount of newbuilds for social housing, greenbelts and other location restrictions OF COURSE do not discourage the developers from starting building.
Nah. Regulations can’t be it, definitely. I mean, who WOULDN’T want to apply for a construction plan to the local council, fill in countless health and safety regulatory forms, allocate about 25% (depending on the size of the newbuild) of the total newbuilt properties to “vulnerable people” who will pay around half of market price?
I know I would! I love having decisions being made for me – how will I plan; what will I need to do and what part of property will I be forced to allocate to someone who will pay less than the market says. Just thinking about this looks like a perfect Friday evening to me.
And what about the rent controls in some areas? They are yet another encouragement for the land developers to just… build, build and build even more! I mean, although they will lose part of their profit, but they will be participating in helping out the vulnerable people! What a meaningful and purposeful act. And its voluntary! Well, almost, but still. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
The housing crisis, especially of “affordable type”, is also caused by the “Right to Buy” scheme, where the long-term social housing tenants are allowed to purchase the house they have been living for 5 years or more with a 40% discount.
Just look at the state of the average social housing; look at the average area where the social housing tends to be based in and look what kind of effects does the social housing have in regards of the property values of the area. I think everybody would agree that these houses are nothing but lovely properties and the areas are so nice that you’d love to raise your kids there. Just like Tony Blair is a honest and hard-working chap.
And you know what’s best? The government (or social housing associations, who get a lot of their funding from the government) is responsible for the maintenance of the rented properties, meaning that repairs, communal areas and other niceties is yet another area where government is able to spend… Ooops, my bad… Invest money in. I mean, we surely can’t allow private handling of these things by the owners themselves, so we must to continue investing money in building the social housing and anyone who is not efficient in this must be queried. Just like these ministers.
Because we can’t say no for the better future, right? It is nice knowing that the government knows how to spend our money better than us ourselves. Otherwise we would definitely starve.
The Corner 