The proportion of social renters has fallen from a high of 29% in 1981 to less than half that today, while numbers in private renting have more than doubled. Many are forced to pay exorbitant rents for appalling and overcrowded conditions in a largely unregulated market. Even with a programme of mass housebuilding and fall in house prices, many would not be able to afford home ownership.
Yet, it need not be this way. In Vienna, the majority of the city’s population live in high-quality subsidised housing. It is a vision that Bevan would have recognised, in which nurses, teachers, office cleaners and factory workers all live in the same street, or block.
The city spends more than €570m (£502m) a year on its housing, including building new homes, paid for largely with a 1% levy on the salaries of every Viennese resident. Elements of the model have been adopted by many other European cities, from Barcelona to Helsinki.
What good housing requires, as Vienna shows, is political vision and will. The real question is not: why shouldn’t working-class people own their own homes? It should rather be: why should we not all have proper, decent housing? That costs money, and higher taxation. But it is not nearly as utopian as many imagine.
Kenan Malik@the Grundiana
Would anyone in a major UK city consider paying a 1% levy towards an affordable housing scheme?
Yet, it need not be this way. In Vienna, the majority of the city’s population live in high-quality subsidised housing. It is a vision that Bevan would have recognised, in which nurses, teachers, office cleaners and factory workers all live in the same street, or block.
The city spends more than €570m (£502m) a year on its housing, including building new homes, paid for largely with a 1% levy on the salaries of every Viennese resident. Elements of the model have been adopted by many other European cities, from Barcelona to Helsinki.
What good housing requires, as Vienna shows, is political vision and will. The real question is not: why shouldn’t working-class people own their own homes? It should rather be: why should we not all have proper, decent housing? That costs money, and higher taxation. But it is not nearly as utopian as many imagine.
Kenan Malik@the Grundiana
Would anyone in a major UK city consider paying a 1% levy towards an affordable housing scheme?
