Comment on Why Britain is the world’s worst on homelessness

• Espiritdescali@futurology.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The house building companies already have vast amounts of land they own with planning permission in place. They restrict the amount of housing they build to artificially keep the prices high, if they build too many, the prices they could sell their houses for would drop, reducing profit. These are private companies and the government has little control over them. This is why every government for the last few generations has promised more houses and delivered nothing.

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  • huf@hexbear.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    These are private companies and the government has little control over them.

    lol, they have an army, just send it in and nationalize the shit out of them. the government has as much control as it wants to have.

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    • frazorth@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Tax the crap out of them until they build is usually easier.

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      • huf@hexbear.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        neither of those are gonna happen, so it doesnt matter

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    • Espiritdescali@futurology.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’m all for nationalising infrastructure, including houses, but you would still have to compensate shareholders unfortunately. If we didn’t (which is an option) the markets would react very badly and make Liz Truss seem like a genius.

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      • huf@hexbear.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        only if you let them. why does the government have to allow capital flight in the first place?

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  • frazorth@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It is unfortunate that the building companies make more money by not building, than by building.

    We need a progressive land/council tax. Hording land should cost you.

    My favourite suggestion should be that tax levels are based upon a heat map of urban density, but also linked to area owned. It came out of the US because they have problems with land hording in urban area, spaces that are just a car park to act as a holding for land.

    It would mean that ownership of inner city, undeveloped land and also owning large estates is penalised.

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    • Espiritdescali@futurology.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’m in favour of a Land Value Tax, this means hoarding land becomes expensive. It also means grouse moores and golf courses become expensive (good things in my mind)

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  • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The gvernment only makes this situation worse with the town and country planning act too.

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• Wanderer@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s by design.

  The rich want low housing and high population because it makes their assets go up. Traditionally like silent generation, greatest generation and before affordable homes for the working class and the following generations was seen as an ideal that people were willing to die for. This ideal was largely realised with the boomers.

  But the boomers then decided it is better if they have houses and no one else does because their wealth can go up and they can then make money like the land owners than their grandparents were kept in poverty by. Now they can do it to their children!

  I honestly don’t think it will be solved until the boomers die. Even then I wouldn’t count on it. Too much effort to keep population increasing no matter the cost.

  If I was PM I would get voted out by doing something drastic like trying to put through a land value tax and building a new city 1mill+ city maybe between Hull and Leeds. Put a big fucking 200mph train line between Liverpool and hull. Tell everyone to get fucked.

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• sgtlion@hexbear.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  They simply don’t want to. Construction company owners are some of the richest and ones who do the most lobbying to MPs.

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• LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Why would they? They’re all landlords lol. More supply means dropping property values.

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  • mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The next government. They are incentives to help younger generations and renters as these make up a large majority of their voters that helped them into power.

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    • Flyberius@hexbear.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yes, but they are all landlords, and ultimately they don’t give two shits about the voters who helped them into power. They are beholden to capital.

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    • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      They’re all landlords too lol. Even corbynite labour MPs were fucking landleeches. The UK has a very rigid class system between the Landlords and the non-landlords. The economy here is basically just housing because nothing else is worth investing into, and all other sectors, especially construction, industrial manufacturing and tech/R&D are dead.

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