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Morning Briefing: reaction to children living in shipping containers continues
The coverage of a report finding that thousands of homeless children are living in shipping containers and office blocks continues
In the news
Sky News has more on the temporary accommodation story, with one mother telling the channel that her shipping container in Ealing is “a prison”.
In the interview, she compares being put there to “mental torture” and calls it “a place for animals”.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that a property company has been fined £36,000 for flouting fire safety laws at a student accommodation block.
According to South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, dust covers were left on smoke detectors, alongside other defects.
Also on the BBC, if you missed it yesterday morning, is a combative Today Programme interview with housing secretary Robert Jenrick.
Mr Jenrick, whom the sector has not yet had a chance to get to know, was asked repeatedly whether he agreed with prime minister Boris Johnson’s characterisation of Conservative MPs opposed to no-deal Brexit as “collaborators”.
Elsewhere, the business magazine Raconteur has run a piece called ‘Five innovative ways to combat the housing crisis’.
The article does not mention social housing, instead it focuses on innovations by private sector developers.
One councillor in Penzance, however, tells Cornwall Live that social housing is the answer, with the town now ranking among the most deprived towns in the UK.
Labour councillor Cornelius Olivier has argued for a significant increase in the stock of social housing in Penzance to deal with this.
Solving the housing crisis is frequently a matter for strong debate and a report by the Tony Blair Institute has sparked just that.
As reported by Inside Housing, the institute argues that the UK’s housing crisis is not caused by a lack of supply and building 300,000 homes a year would not have a significant impact on house prices and rents.
Ian Mulheirn, who wrote the report, argues that increases in house prices have more to do with low interest rates than a lack of supply.
One’s opinion of the report, it seems, mostly depends on your previous view on this issue and so it is perhaps not that surprising that David Parsley, contributing editor to Property Week, has written for the I attacking the paper.
Mr Parsley calls it “bunkum”, suggesting instead that high prices are caused by developers land banking.
In Hackney a familiar battle rears its head, with social housing residents on the Pembury Estate, owned by the large housing association Peabody, complaining that they can’t access a playground.
The playground, they say, has been padlocked for months and can only be accessed from the block of private housing on the estate.
On social media
The debate over Mr Mulheirn’s paper rages on over on Twitter:
Well done @housingevidence
— Dan Cookson (@danc00ks0n)
Really pleased to see @ianmulheirn fascinating paper published alongside the commentary from leading academics.
Accessible for us non-academics and helps lift the level of the thinking/debate. t.co/Z1mrYvolxVWell done @housingevidence
— Dan Cookson (@danc00ks0n) August 21, 2019
Really pleased to see @ianmulheirn fascinating paper published alongside the commentary from leading academics.
Accessible for us non-academics and helps lift the level of the thinking/debate. https://t.co/Z1mrYvolxV
’Partial and selective’, ’completely wrongheaded’, ’unconvincing’, ’wide of the mark’ and reaching ’unwarranted’ conclusions.
— Simon Jeffrey (@sjeffrey01)
Damning peer review of Ian Mulheirn’s too-clever-by-half hot take on the housing crisis (Londoners just love flatshares!)t.co/kVh86ljBSm'Partial and selective', 'completely wrongheaded', 'unconvincing', 'wide of the mark' and reaching 'unwarranted' conclusions.
— Simon Jeffrey (@sjeffrey01) August 21, 2019
Damning peer review of Ian Mulheirn's too-clever-by-half hot take on the housing crisis (Londoners just love flatshares!)https://t.co/kVh86ljBSm
No Marxist, but helpful to have such a mainstreamer as Ian Mulheirn laying waste to the orthodoxy of sacrificing everything to extra output. Since it has a "Blair" branding perhaps the @MayorofLondon & @jamesmurray_ldn will read it
— Michael Edwards (@michaellondonsf)No Marxist, but helpful to have such a mainstreamer as Ian Mulheirn laying waste to the orthodoxy of sacrificing everything to extra output. Since it has a "Blair" branding perhaps the @MayorofLondon & @jamesmurray_ldn will read it
— Michael Edwards (@michaellondonsf) August 21, 2019
