UN Report on UK Housing – Raquel Rolnik
September 12th, 2013
UPDATE: The report has now been released or download it directly here
“The right to housing is not about a roof anywhere, at any cost, without any social ties. It is not about reshuffling people according to a snapshot of the number of bedrooms at a given night. It is about enabling environments for people to maintain their family and community bonds, their local schools, work places and health services allowing them to exercise all other rights, like education, work, food or health.”
This ought to be burned into the front door of the Government department responsible for housing, with a blowtorch, in order to remind them every day as they come to work of their responsibility to all the residents of the United Kingdom.
I have read the press release in full. It doesn’t make for pleasant reading, not if you care about UK housing. It’s not very long and I recommend you read it if you are interested in the provision of housing for everyone, not just would be owner occupiers, in the UK.
A few key phrases jumped out at me and these I have quoted below:-
“The assessment includes legislation and policy frameworks as well as the consideration of concrete outcomes from those policies, examining how they respond to the housing needs of women, men and children, with a particular focus on those most vulnerable and disenfranchised.”
“Housing deprivation is worsening in the United Kingdom. Increasingly, people appear to be facing difficulties to accessing adequate, affordable, well located and secure housing.”
“The numbers of people on waiting lists for social housing have risen, with reports indicating waits of several years to obtain a suitable house.”
“However, the pressing need for new and more social housing is not being met, and the social housing stock that was transferred to residents through the Right to Buy scheme appears not to have been proportionally replaced.”
“Of the many testimonies I have heard, let me say that I have been deeply touched by persons with physical and mental disabilities who have felt targeted instead of protected; of the grandmothers who are carers of their children and grandchildren but are now feeling they are forced to move away from their life-long homes due to a spare bedroom or to run the risk of facing arrears; of the single parents who will not have space for their children when they come to visit; of the many people who are increasingly having to choose between food and paying the [bedroom tax] penalty.”
Some people have written a lot of unpleasant things about the 1970s, mostly Dominic Sandbrook who didn’t even live through them as an adult, but I can assure you that if we had the choice to somehow return to the housing situation of the 1970s in a flash, when over 30% of people were in council housing, and happy to be so, then the temptation would be great. I can assure you that it *was* better then, in housing terms.
I look forward to reading the full report when it is published next year in March.
You can watch her talking about the global housing crisis on Vimeo here:-
https://vimeo.com/54034574 at 1hour 2minutes in.
with thanks to Tom Slater who tweeted the link
The document to which she refers in her talk can be read here:-
Housing – Enabling markets to work
Austin Clegg | 11 September 2013 3:45 pm
@ Ralph Kent- Absolutely spot on. This is all on top of the imbecilic decision to sell off the council housing stock and the lack of any proper government investment in housing for the poor.
un-expert-attacks-britains-approach-to-affordable-housing/5060491.article
Just register with Building Design online to read the above article, you don’t have to subscribe.
The comments by Grant Shapps quoted at the end of the BD article are disgraceful but unsurprising coming from a member of the political party that rolled out right to buy on a large scale and largely destroyed the council housing provision of the 1970s while enabling a fortunate few to become wealthy as a result of buying elsewhere and letting out their former council property.
Patrick Butler of the Guardian has responded here:-
UK housing inadequate says UN envoy Rolnik bedroom tax
Inside Housing
Old link
un-expert-says-uk-government-most-aggressive-in-11-missions/6528551.article
Filthy British Press and one MP
Daily Express
How-dare-this-idiot-preach-at-Britain-on-human-rights
Daily Mail
Raquel-Rolnik-A-dabbler-witchcraft-offered-animal-sacrifice-Marx.html
Tory MP Stewart Jackson said Rolnik was a “loopy Brazilian leftie with no evidence masquerading as a serious UN official”.