What Crisis

[LenBurch]

We have not got a "Housing Crisis" but a "population crisis"

Instead of building on the green belt, ruining villages and the countryside
and increasing liabilities to flooding, we need to stop immigration.

[MJR]

[quote="LenBurch"]we need to stop immigration.[/quote]
That's rubbish and I suspect you know it. Excluding net migration, the UK population is still increasing by over 100,000 per year and that has been accelerating since 2001 (source: Components of population change, Office for National Statistics, General Register Office for Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency).

Is there much to suggest that net migration is anything more than a temporary blip caused by release of pent-up demand by the opening of borders across Europe? If we can make things more equal across the EU, it should reduce again. Also, emigration has been increasing for years and if we start telling other people to go home or not to come here, they may stop Britons who want to emigrate from going there. Are you willing to tell Britons they can't retire to warmer climes?

Whatever happens to migration, increased housing need seems very probable and we need to find the best way to fulfil it. I'm not convinced the current plans are the best, but I also don't have good suggestions on this tricky problem.

[stephan]

don't feed the troll.

[MJR]

[quote="stephan"]don't feed the troll.[/quote]
If you're sure he's a troll and you're a site admin, do something about it. Delete the thread or whatever else the user agreements allow.

Troll-ignoring is silly - leaving lies uncontradicted means someone else may believe them in the future. It's fairly efficient just to repost stuff I've written in the past.

[stephan]

I am no longer admin at Co-opNet.

However, even as admin I would not have deleted the posts, again it fuels more posts, complaints and further anti-social behaviour. I agree that its good to reply every now and then, better than leaving comments unchallenged. (I've even done this myself). But a part of me feels that its playing into their hands.

[norman]

Len isn't a troll. He has made many long and thoughtful contributions to co-opnet on other topics over the years.

However just to close the debate: Britain's housing problems are not on the demand side, but the supply side. There is no local authority building, almost no new HA building, and the private sector would rather hoard building land than use it. Land value taxation? Land nationalisation? The status quo is not an option.