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Why housing is politically important, whatever they tell you
A review of The Housing Debate by Stuart Lowe There are plenty of books on the history of housing policy but few are as readable or as short as this one. It has other advantages, too. The author Stuart Lowe makes frequent international comparisons, asking questions like ‘why did Britain and Germany, with massive housing…
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How to… tackle poor conditions for migrants in the private rented sector
New arrivals in Britain are highly dependent on private lettings – whether bedsits, accommodation tied to their jobs or caravan sites. Recent migrants are three times more likely than the average person to be living in the private rented sector (PRS). Many endure poor conditions, irregular tenancies, overcrowding and even “hot bedding”, where tenants use…
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New migrants need better quality private rented housing
It’s a little-known fact that there are now nearly four million homes being privately let compared with only two million in 2000. One factor pushing the rising demand is migration, because new migrants are three times more likely to be in the sector than a typical member of the settled population. This is not surprising,…
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Would an independent Scotland have a radically different immigration policy?
With the planned independence referendum in Scotland now a political football between First Minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister Cameron, there has been surprisingly little discussion of the implications for immigration policy. Indeed, a recent reader survey by the Daily Record found that Scots were mainly concerned about other issues, while south of the border…
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Build more houses
It is increasingly clear that the UK housing crisis can only be addressed by building more social housing. Ross McKibbin wrote in the LRB last year that this should be a priority for a future Labour government, and even the coalition belatedly accepted the economic benefits of social housing construction in the run-up to the…
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Democracy under attack
Democracy under attack is the title of a new book which looks at the role of the media in driving social policy. It accuses journalists of distortion, dumbing down, hunting in packs and several other sins. Nothing remarkable about that, you might think, except that the author is a journalist – Malcolm Dean, until 2006…
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Ignoring the facts
Last week John Humphrys was seconded from the Today programme to present The Future State of Welfare on BBC2. He wrote a piece for the Daily Mail to promote the programme: ‘Our Shameless Society – How our welfare system has created an age of entitlement.’ Returning to his birthplace – Splott, in Cardiff – Humphrys…
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Sarah Webb
In June 2011, Sarah Webb, who has died of cancer aged 49, gave a rousing speech at the national conference of the Chartered Institute of Housing in which she told the housing minister, Grant Shapps, that he needed to “bat for housing within government” and explain to David Cameron why housing matters. She reminded him that…