Housing crisis – one of the most important domestic issues

We were pleased to have our old friend, lawyer Liz Davies at our November meeting to speak on the housing crisis. In a nutshell, she said:
The housing crisis is one of the most important domestic political issues. It is one of the reasons why Tory seats went to Labour in the last general election; false promises: that tinkering around with the market means that the market will provide, are now coming home to roost!
Home ownership and public renting is going down and private renting is going up, but up to 70% of private rentals have health and safety problems. Low pay and loss of jobs mean that rent arrears and so evictions are growing.
The charity, Shelter says that 300,000 new homes should be built every year, and half of those should be social housing. It is now a widely held view that there should be compulsory purchase of empty properties and more security for the tenants of rented homes, with genuine rent and quality controls.