Evictions Mount

There were 10,475 repossessions of rented homes in the first quarter of the year - the highest in five years. 

This is out of 47,220 applications to courts, of which 31,000 were by social landlords and 6,500 by private landlords.

And a further 200,000 revenge evictions against tenants who had complained of work needing to be done to make their homes fit for occupation, says Shelter.

There are 1,700,000 people on Housing Waiting Lists in Britain.  These aren't scroungers, but mainly ordinary working people who simply can't afford to buy or rent as home.   And all the Government is doing is encouraging developers to create more luxury flats or build expensive new houses for sale - putting more people into mortgage debt.  Meanwhile the banks are borrowing money from their customers or from the Government at 0.1 per cent and re-lending it at up to 7 per cent. They say they're getting Britain's debt down, but they're conspiring to get total mortgage debt up to over 1.2 trillion - which they say helps boost the economy.

 All victims of a Government reneging on its responsibility to house its people. 

Government mistakes

The Government says it is getting Britain's debt down.  But with Help To Buy it is actually encouraging the creation of more debt.  More vulnerable mortgagors to add to the country's 1.2trillion of mortgage debt already.  It only makes profit for their money-lender friends.

22% more first-time buyers.  24% of homeowners facing repayment problems, even before interest rates rise,  Government thinks as long as it's selling something, the economy's sll right.   But its selling boom can rapidly turn to bust.

Call to Action

Bristol, Europe’s 2015 Green Capital, is crowd-funding housing.  Permanently-affordable homes on secure long-term tenancies, owned on behalf of the community so they can’t be sold off on the speculative market.  Shares offer good interest: invest now.  AEOBhousepeople.org.uk

What the Government is doing

All Government action on housing is directed at selling homes.  Even the adjustment to planning regulations to allow conversion of derelict office blocks simply lets big developers convert them into flats to sell.  This makes money for developers and for money-lenders, but does not solve the problem of lack of affordable homes.  And it is expanding debt, creating more of the sub-prime mortgages that precipitated the last economic collapse and meant banks had to have a billion-pound bailout from the taxpayer.  People taking the Government’s Help To Buy are mortgaging themselves to the limit of their income; and when interest rates go up, as they are bound to do, they will find themselves unable to cope, being repossessed and losing everything they have.

Britain’s total mortgage debt is now over £1.2 trillion – three-quarters of total GDP – and BORROWING TO BUY Is NOT reducing our national debt.  The only way to tackle the housing crisis is for local communities to raise their own money to buy in empty sites and empty buildings, convert them and own them to keep them permanently affordable, says the Abandon Empty Office Buildings campaign.  “We have already raised £150,000 in investments in our Community Share and this is a way for homes to be owned on behalf of the community, and keep banks, with their dangerous tricks, out of the equation,” says Tony Crofts, one of AEOB’s founders.  “We need to go on building this fund to enable us to buy and rescue buildings that are capable of producing good, secure, long-term tenancies for families.”

“Stonesfield Community Trust, in Oxfordshire, has only had two rent rises in twenty years, and is now letting at below-council rents.  It has paid all its debts and its still looking towards a £200,000 surplus to put into further social benefit for its village.  This has proved it is possible for a voluntary non-profit organisation to make affordable rents wash their own face.  We want to achieve the same for Bristol.  We aim to work with Bristol Energy Co-op, which is aiming to make Bristol self-supporting for energy generation by spreading photo-voltaic panels over an increasing number of houses.  Localising the economy is the answer to reducing the economic power of the big bullies.”  Go to AEOBhousepeople.org.uk or Tel. 0117 9265931 to learn how to make an interest-bearing investment of £50 to £20,000 for Bristol’s future.

riotjam

When you create a society that has no sense about it at all, you can't be surprised if people behave in destructive, irrational ways.  And if you set an example of unrestrained greed and freedom to behave vilely, you can't be surprised if people follow it.

David Cameron was involved in a shop window-breaking incident in Oxford when a member of the Bullingdon Club.  "Just youthful high spirits", of course.  He didn't spend any days in prison.  And bankers and company directors grab millions in pay and pension rights "to keep the best people at the top".

"What "utterly unacceptable,. criminal behaviour" actually means is "tug you forelocks and respect our property while we exploit society entirely to our advantage".   The government's own research has found that 64% of rioters came from the most deprived neighbourhoods, 42% were entitled to free school meals, 35% were on benefits, and two-thirds had special educational needs.

Forever debt

When businesses borrow to start producing, when they do so they have to charge a price for their products that covers the interest on their borrowings.  This means they are charging more for their stuff than they are paying out to their workers.  So there is always a perpetual shortage of buying power.  So consumers also have to borrow in order to purchase what they need.  This creates a continually-growing pool of debt, which makes it necessary for the economy to keep growing more and more which produces pollution and exhaustion of materials.  It also guarantees that some industries will have to go bankrupt as the demands for their products falls.  So we are condemned, by the continual creation of debt, to work longer and longer hours, have less and less time for our families, and endanger the planet's environment.

We need a different system, where the increasing productiveness of modern industry enables us to work LESS hours and use things up less fervidly.

save us

With land, food and water running out for the human race, we need to start working on sharing more systematically and fairly.  In housing in Britain, with a completely unregulated market, that means clubbing together to afford mortgage loans.  That doesn't just mean sharing the financial commitment: it also means becoming your own landlords and learning to work hard together to administer and maintain the property you occupy.  There is no longer a "landlord:" who will take care of a blocked drain or a slipped slate  It means getting to grips with the real cost of running a building.  (And forget that old chant about "rent being wasted money".  A lot of rent goes on maintenance; and only if the landlord is a bastard or overcharging, does he make a profit once he has serviced his debts and mended the house.

What it amounts to is learning to take responsibility - as chair, secretary, treasurer, housekeeper - like a grown-up; not always looking for a "leader" or Mummy or Daddy to see to everything.  Government from the grassroots up.

No Sense

If you construct a society with no sense in it, you can't be surprised if people behave destructively and irrationally.  And if you set an example of violent greed, you can't be surprised if people follow it.

David Cameron was involved in a shop-window-breaking incident in Oxford while a member of the Bullingdon Club.  "Just youthful exuberance", of course.  He didn't spend any nights in prison.

And if bankers and company directors grab millions in pay and pension rights, you can't be surprised if ordinary kids try to grab what they want.

What "utterly unacceptable, criminal behaviour" actually means is: "tug your forelocks and respect our property as we exploit society to our own advantage".  And "We'll throw your parents out of their homes if you don't behave," merely compounds the nonsense.

When you have never been in the habit of saving, or building up capital, living co-operatively is a major mental gear-change.  You're actually taking over the capitalist system, but running it ethically.  This meams we have to get rid of the government - which useless and dishonest - and ban usury, to get land and property taken out of the speculative arena and owned on behalf of the community.  It means, ultimately, creating our own banking system, which works on permanently fixed low interest rates so you know your finance costs and those who lend to you know what they're going to get: and there's no more of this letting politicians and banker jerk rates up and down like a yoyo.

What you are doing is building up capital to purchase the house you're living in so that you become your own landlords; and you only spend on what is necessary, abolishing profiteering.  Once your borrowed funds have been repaid, you should be able to fix rents at the level that just takes care of maintenance plus Council tax and utilities.

At the 2011 Britain Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers), the theme was "sustainability.  During the discussions, it became clear that the only way of saving our world is to learn to live like human beings are supposed to live: sharing and co-operating.  By using facilities and housing in common, we learn how to make do with less.  We are reversing the economic trend that has governed us for 200 years: dividing people into smaller and smaller competing and consuming nuclear unit to increase consumption. Continual growth is demanding more than this world's resources, and we need to find ways of living with less.  And that means trusting and relying on each other more.

Housing in hell

A system where people bid against each other, forcing house prices up and up is no way to allocate housing.  It only conspires to keep us all loan slaves and profit the greedy bankers who lend money; and the government which refuses to regulate the housing market for its own economic motives.  These are what produced the economic crisis we are all suffering for.

We need to create a system which makes the banks and the government irrelevant: by clubbing together to help each other get homes.  Ordinary people can create wealth, and use it productively, not negatively as at present.  If land and buildings are owned on behalf of the community, the speculators can't get their hands on them.

For a start, get your local Credit Union to start a "Homes For All" savings account, and begin putting your spare shillings into it.  If you have pension funds to invest, don't buy an annuity - which only gets stolen when you die.  Buy a house that several people can share, and get them to form themselves into a co-op which can pay you a modest 3% dividend on your investment (which will provide the pension you want).  Then make a will leaving the house to the co-op when you die (when it would be otherwise sucked into a profit swamp in the City).  That way your life savings will provide perpetually affordable homes to others - a great memorial to you.

Eiter way, pooling funds and income to provide a roof is the way.  Send the usurers to hell, where they belong.

New blog

Time to start a blog!