We have a housing shortage, its serious, so why on earth is the government proposing letting councils build homes?
Government is bad at doing most things and there’s nothing to suggest that building houses is any different.
What can councils do differently to solve the problem? The only thing I can see is give themselves planning permission more easily, but if they’ll give themselves permission why not private concerns?
Councils will not be allowed to develop land anywhere other than where building is already permitted, there’s simply no advantage to councils building homes.
The outcome of this will be councils borrowing money, getting into heavy debt and then not redeeming the revenue leading to even greater burden on the tax payers (and less money for the individual to spend on housing thus exacerbating the problem even more).
If private companies lose money on a project it doesn’t matter so much, the investors who risked their money on the project lose out, but they voluntarily invested, the tax payer however is forced to invest in government projects.
If we want to subsidise housing for the poorest then lets give them money to spend on housing. The council house system removes any sort of incentive to look after the property you’re living in, at least with privately rented property you run the risk of eviction and charges for damaging property.
