Structural justice: we need to nationalise house building

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In 1998 I bought a one-bed flat in Kings Cross. It cost me £62,000. The similar flat next door had been sold for £38,000 a few months before and I remember my new neighbour telling me I had been ‘diddled’. 

I only bought the flat because the estate where I had been living was being demolished by Islington Council and buying was significantly cheaper than renting at that time. I had zero thoughts about it being a ‘good investment’.

Today, those same flats cost £500,000.

Disaster

Sure, Kings Cross has been redeveloped since and that block of flats has been gated.  There is not the same blatant drug use and open prostitution which was common 25 years ago.

But this kind of price inflation in accommodation has been mirrored across the country. The median price paid for residential property increased by 259% between 1997 and 2016.

This rise in house prices in the last 25 years is a disaster for our communities as so many have become priced out of their own neighbourhoods. Housing has become the key driver of inequality between rich and poor.

Britain’s Housing Crisis

The BBC’s brilliant documentary Britain’s Housing Crisis is essential viewing for anyone who cares about poverty and homelessness.

It shows the impact of government policies have had, such as the Right to Buy in the 1980s and the Bank of England being given independence to set interest rates in 1997.  The low interest rates since created a lending boom which has driven houses prices up and up.  Other initiatives to encourage home ownership has had the effect of driving prices up further.

Vested interests

Another key factor exposed by the documentary is the vested interests of the construction industry to limit the supply of new housing. It is simply not in their interests to build the quantity of houses the country needs because more supply drives prices down. Recent decades have seen their profits soar. 

And the government has subsidised private companies to make billions. Schemes like the Battersea Power Station development have been enabled to built vastly expensive apartments which completely fail to provide the kind of housing south London needs. Quotas for ‘affordable units’ are constantly squabbled over but the very term ‘affordable’ has become a joke.

Market failure

But really, we should not expect anything else from companies who exist to maximise profit and increase dividends to their shareholders.  

When it comes to housing, the market has comprehensively failed to produce anything like justice. This is why we need a radically new approach. 

We need to undermine this profiteering by state-led house-building which can provide for local authorities the kind of housing our communities truly need. We need a new national housing agency which can build the houses we need and ensure they are held and managed in the public good.

Commodification

Housing should never be seen simply as a commodity to be bought and sold. Like education and health, homes is too important to be left at the mercy of acquisitive greed.

And it’s not just morally wrong but economically disastrous. Today, there is billions being wasted because more people are housed in expensive temporary accommodation, B&Bs and hotels than ever before. This is driving multiple local authorities to the brink of bankruptcy. 

The government has invested heavily in reducing rough sleeping but the targets to eradicate this visible form of homelessness by next year will hopelessly fail. The policy aims are unravelling because you cannot simply address the visible tip of iceberg without addressing the underlying problem. 

Injustice

Part of the Christian witness is to practically help and show mercy and compassion and this what so many churches and charities are doing. But we must also speak of the structural sin and injustice which underlies the issue.

The Brazilian Archbishop, Dom Helder Camara, famously said:

“When I feed the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why so many people are poor they call me a communist.”

Radical shift

And I am sure many will think that talk of nationalising house-building sounds like something from a by-gone age. A bit old Labour. 

But our country desperately needs a radical policy shift that addresses the housing injustice which has grown so worse in the last 25 years. We cannot re-hash the same failed policies which have led to the status quo.

The UK has the political will to provide health care to anyone regardless of their income or status.  And we do the same for comprehensive education for under 16s. We should have the same vision and commitment when it comes to housing.

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Watch: Britain’s Housing Crisis: what went wrong? on BBC iPlayer