Britain's Housing Splurge Is Long Overdue

The £39 billion ($53 billion) boost that Britain's Labour government has announced for affordable housing still leaves its ambition of building 1.5 million homes over five years looking like a stretch. That shouldn't obscure the broader point that the country has underspent for decades on accommodation for its most disadvantaged. Any attempt to reverse this trend has the potential to pay for itself in wider economic benefits and even lead to a healthier private property market.
The state's retreat from providing housing began with Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and gained added impetus after 2010 with the Conservative-led government's efforts to cut expenditure and repair the public finances following the global financial crisis. Rather than building homes, the government aimed to steer financial support to low-income households to enable them to rent in the private market or from not-for-profit housing associations. The guiding philosophy was that a more market-based approach would encourage a more aspirational society; public housing, by contrast, kept people caught in dependency.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

35 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Bid to serve takeaway crab dishes from converted horsebox near Falmouth beach

Crab tacos and king tiger prawns are on the menu should a new roadside takeaway be granted a licence in Falmouth. Mike Lewin has applied for a street trading licence to open the Crab Shack, serving crab and other seafood dishes, alongside vegetarian options, from a converted horsebox trailer. He is proposing to trade from Queen Mary Road at the far end of Queen Mary Gardens, just up from Tidal Coffee. It is just down the road from Gyllyngvase Beach. The area where Mr Lewin hopes to trade (Image: Mike Lewin/Cornwall Council) Mr Lewin hopes to begin trading from the date of consent up until October 31, open seven days a week from 8.30am to 4pm. His sample menu for Cornwall Council's licensing committee includes crab sandwiches, crab salad and crab tacos, alongside whole shell-on king tiger prawns, calamari, smoked mackerel salad and a small selection of ciabattas and wraps, including mozzarella and tomato. He also proposes to serve a selection of hot and cold drinks. Food would be served from a converted horsebox trailer (Image: Mike Lewin/Cornwall Council) Mr Lewin goes on to add: 'Our menu differs from the other two vendors and will only enhance the customer offer.' Already trading from Queen Mary Road are Tidal Coffee further down, and Dough and Dowr, serving bagels and pizzas, at the other end adjoining Cliff Road. Inside the newly converted horsebox (Image: Mike Lewin/Cornwall Council) In his application Mr Lewin states: 'Locally sourced food is paramount to use and we will source crab from the Real Cornish Crab company in Penzance, prawns and other fish from Matthew Stevens in St Ives, meat from RJ Trevarthen in Penryn, bread from Falmouth bakeries and salad ingredients from Falmouth based suppliers. 'Coffee [would be] from Cornish Coffee Company in Redruth, cold drinks from Bookers in Redruth.' READ NEXT First electric bus on streets of Cornwall is now in Falmouth Britpop star turned food writer names Cornish drink one of his top picks Last call for volunteers for this weekend's RNLI Castle 2 Castle Swim He said there would be a reduced rate for hot drinks when the purchaser provides their own cup, to cut down on waste. Cornwall Council's Street Trading and Pavement Licensing Sub Committee is due to meet on Wednesday (June 25) to decide on the application.

Yahoo

35 minutes ago

• Yahoo

'I'm a full-time mum – here's how ditching £6 lattes saved me £547 a year'

A FULL-TIME mum has revealed how walking away from 'pretentious hipster cafés' in favour of brewing at home has slashed her caffeine costs and stress. Angela Moore, aged 55 and from Warrington, runs her own accessories business from home while raising two kids. She guzzled six takeaway lattes a week to keep her creative spark alive, dropping on average £859 a year on her caffeine fix. But with the help of a newly-launched online coffee-cost calculator, she says she has pocketed more than £500 by making the leap to a bean-to-cup coffee machine at home. On her coffee habits, Angela said: 'I run the studio around my two grown-up kids' ever-changing diaries, so coffee is mission critical. 'Six cups a week kept me buzzing, but the bills were brutal. 'Why pay six quid to perch on a wobbly stool while someone hogs a sofa for hours? 'Now, I hit one button at home, sip a perfect flat white, and get back to work – no queue or eye-watering price tag.' Angela's penny-pinching victory lands as new research reveals the nation's biggest café pet peeves, and the hefty price we pay for them. Top irritations include table-hoggers, laptop squatters, never-ending queues, uncomfortable seats, and the barista who cannot crack a smile. Coffee experts at Philips found that Brits buy an average of four takeaway coffees a week at £4.13 each. Philips' free Calculatté tool crunches any takeaway price and pinpoints the moment a bean-to-cup machine pays for itself. Lizzie Lee, Philips' in-house coffee expert at Philips, said: 'Queues, sky-high prices, and those table-thieving tyrants have turned the morning latte into an expensive chore. 'Calculatté proves you can enjoy barista-quality coffee at home for a fraction of the cost.'

CNN

42 minutes ago

• CNN

Iranian FM meets with UK, Germany, France, EU counterparts

French president Emmanuel Macron says "moving towards zero enrichment" should be a priority in European talks with Iran in Geneva. CNN's Becky Anderson speaks to French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine about the diplomatic efforts to stop the Israel-Iran conflict.