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Morning Briefing: UN sent evidence of extreme poverty in UK
Evidence sent to the United Nations (UN) has highlighted extreme poverty in the UK ahead of the body’s visit to the country.
In the news
The Guardian has looked at some of the evidence being sent to the UN ahead of the November visit of Professor Philip Alston, its rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
This includes the account of a disabled former soldier on Universal Credit, who said he is so poor that he lost 16kg due to a lack of food.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times has printed a letter from Vincent Carroll, a Haringey councillor, criticising a recent article in the paper that had singled out the planning system as being responsible for the housing crisis.
Mr Carroll said that this argument was “simplistic” and suggested that there was “near-unanimity” in the affordable housing sector on what government needs to do.
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The Telegraph has covered research from thinktank the Institute for Fiscal Studies showing that one in six baby boomers now owns a second home.
According to the research, people aged 55-64 years have built up an average wealth of £250,000, largely as a result of property purchases.
In London, assembly member Tom Copley has attacked former mayor Boris Johnson’s record on affordable housing in an article for On London.
He points out that Mr Johnson’s recent Telegraph article didn’t even mention his track record as mayor, which saw him intervene on sites to accept planning applications offering low levels of affordable housing.
Social housing campaigners in the capital have criticised Greenwich Council for its decision to sell off public land to the private developer, Pocket Living, News Shopper reports.
Further South, the East Anglian Daily Times reports that locals in Suffolk have criticised plans for a redevelopment of the council’s former headquarters after the developer attempted to halve the number of affordable homes.
And The Times has a story on the American housing market, which, it says, has taken an unexpected dip, with sales of existing homes falling for a fifth month in a row.
On social media
David Pipe of the Chartered Institute of Housing is pleased with some media attention:
Nice to see our call to suspend the right to buy getting a mention in Private Eye! Via @tomemurtha pic.twitter.com/gzepaDyY7E
— David Pipe CIHCM (@DavidPipeCIH)Nice to see our call to suspend the right to buy getting a mention in Private Eye! Via @tomemurtha pic.twitter.com/gzepaDyY7E
— David Pipe CIHCM (@DavidPipeCIH) August 23, 2018
