20 COMMENT THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Patrick Mooney, news editor of Housing, Management & Maintenance
HAVE WE TURNED THE HOUSING CLOCK BACK?
Patrick Mooney takes a look back over the past five decades and suggests that the UK housing sector, rather than progressing, may have actually regressed.
Harold Wilson – a backdrop that does sound incredibly familiar! The swinging sixties were coming to an end, but huge changes in society and pop culture were reflected in the news of the day.
F The Kray Twins were starting life sentences
for murder, troops were deployed onto the streets of Northern Ireland at the start of The Troubles, the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18, the Sun newspaper was launched as a tabloid and a TV documentary about the Royal Family attracted more than 30 million viewers, but was then banned by the Queen. On a more light hearted note, the year 1969
saw The Beatles release their final album Abbey Road, while their final gig on top of the Apple Records building was broken up by the police, the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus was broadcast on our screens, and regular trans- missions of colour TV programmes began on the BBC. It was also a notable year for the housing
LOOKING AT 1969 MAKES ME THINK HOW LITTLE WE APPEAR TO HAVE ACHIEVED IN INTERVENING DECADES
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sector, with a number of events or developments taking place that still resonate with us today. They make me think how little we appear to have achieved in the intervening five decades.
HOUSING NEED IN THE HEADLINES Consider the following news stories from 1969, and compare them to our current situation: • The housing charity Shelter released a report claiming there were up to three million people in urgent need of rehousing, because they were living in damp, overcrowded slum conditions.
• The Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Jenkins introduced Mortgage Interest Relief at Source (MIRAS) to encourage home ownership; it allowed borrowers tax relief for interest payments on their mortgage.
• Work on the Castle Vale estate in Birmingham was finally completed. It was one of the largest
ifty years ago the country was going through some pretty momentous times under the beleaguered premiership of
housing estates in Europe, consisting mostly of council houses and low-rise flats as well as 34 tower blocks, the first of which was occupied in 1964. At its height, the area had a population of around 20,000 who had mainly been moved from the inner city slums of Aston and Nechells.
• Some 378,320 homes of various types and tenures were completed across the country, with 185,000 of them built by councils and just 7,410 built by housing associations. Private builders accounted for 185,920 of the total and therefore had built 49 per cent – the same as councils contributed.
HAS ANYTHING CHANGED? If we scroll forward to the present day, it is remarkable to think that Shelter recently published a report in which they recommend that 3.1 million new low-cost or affordable homes are built over the next 20 years to ensure those on low incomes can be properly housed. They have done the sums, and can demonstrate that with lower rents, the new housing actually pays for itself.
SO WHAT ELSE LOOKS FAMILIAR? Well instead of MIRAS, we have its modern day equivalent in the form of Help To Buy, which allows mainly first time buyers to purchase new homes with the state’s support – in the shape of equity loans of up to 20 per cent (40 per cent in London), on a purchase price of up to £600,000.
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