10 empty homes for every homeless family in England

 

635k homes are left empty in England alone. Meanwhile homeless numbers keep rising.

One of the most shocking illustrations of the housing crisis - we have found that there are ten empty homes for every housing family in our country.

Some of these are in between buyers and renters but others are intentionally being held off the market by investors. 

The estimated 635,000 empty properties in England alone are a complete and utter waste of housing when there are so many homeless families looking for somewhere to live. A large number of these (200,000) have been left empty for over six months.

Meanwhile under this government homeless numbers keep rising...

In 2004, the Labour Government set out to halve the number of homeless families living in temporary accommodation by the end of their third term, in 2010. They succeeded in cutting the figure from over 100,000 in 2004 to 48,000 five years later.

The long downward trend in the homeless population stopped in 2011 - in the middle of the economic crisis - and since then it's never really recovered...

Read more...

‘Zombie’ Parliament has nothing to do because of Cameron’s self-importance

The cat’s out of the bag – tying Parliament to a fixed term of five years was an “irresponsible” act that has “diminished Parliament in the eyes of the public.

That’s the verdict of former House of Commons Speaker Baroness Boothroyd (who is neither the ‘cat’ nor the ‘bag’ mentioned in the introductory paragraph, thank you very much).

Research has shown that MPs sat for just 44 per cent of weekdays over the past year, and only 11 new bills have been introduced in this Parliamentary session – the second lowest in recent history.


Our MPs are working the equivalent of zero-hours contracts – but being paid almost three times as much as most people in full-time employment. Nice work if you can get it!

The revelation that Parliamentary business on Monday was finished after just three hours has led to revived accusations that the Coalition is now running a ‘zombie’ Parliament – just ticking over until the election, while doing nothing about the serious issues of our times.

Baroness Boothroyd said this time-wasting was “an insult to the Parliamentary system” – and she’s right.
We should all know where to lay the blame, too: David Cameron’s puffed-up sense of self-importance, coupled (disconcertingly) with his insecurity.

After he conned his way into Number 10, Cameron knew his position was precarious, so he set about ensuring that he would have the time he felt he needed to inflict on the nation the damage he intended for (among others) the NHS, the welfare state, the economy and the justice system.

That’s why he made sure that his government could only be removed with a confidence vote that would have to be supported by a large proportion of his own Conservative MPs. This would never happen because Tories love power.

Read more...