Part
2 - Housing
We all know that Britain is in an
acute housing crisis. This is one of the biggest problems facing the
working class. Corbyn plans to address this by passing legislation
ensuring that “every home is fit for human habitation”,
something the Tories recently voted down. This is absolutely correct.
He then went further and announced
that “we will control rents...Rent controls exist in many cities
across the world and I want our cities to have those powers too and
tenants to have those protections.” Well-applied rent control
would be an enormous respite for millions of people for whom rent has
become a crippling burden.
But we have already heard the
counterattack of the apologists for capitalism. They claim this
policy does more damage than good because it will discourage
investment by property developers and landlords.
As outrageous a claim this is, it
is also true - we can only expect the profit-driven housing sector to
scale back badly needed house building and refurbishment, since
capitalists make investments to get profits. Significant rent
controls (and they must be significant to make a difference to
workers) cut profits.
There is a danger that these two
policies - making all housing fit for human habitation and rent
controls - will, under ‘market forces’, cancel each other out. To
get housing fit for human habitation, we need much more investment.
The Labour movement must
anticipate huge obstacles being put up to this. Speculation on the
housing market has become key to parasitic British capitalism. We
can’t make these parasites invest in good housing even now, let
alone if we then slap rent controls on.
To really make a success of this
policy, it must be controlled by us from start to finish. We must
nationalise the big construction firms and landlords and embark on a
massive programme of high quality social housing!
The same applies to Corbyn’s
excellent announcement regarding the regeneration of council estates.
He wants to give existing tenants a deciding say of their
regeneration and to guarantee them new homes in the same place after
regeneration is complete.
But the reason this is not
currently done is because the private developers demand profits, and
social housing is not profitable for them. Therefore, we cannot
expect them to comply. If we want regeneration along these lines,
which we do, the process must be carried out by the public sector
from start to finish.
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