Homelessness rise 'likely to have been driven by welfare reforms'

The main cause of this woeful housing situation is that there has not been enough house building in the last 30 years. This pushes up prices and pleases those who already own property. Recent immigrants have, in the main, come to the SE where the labour market relies on them very heavily. It's simple:
Booming London = more jobs = more residents = more pressure on housing. If you don't prioritise building accommodation for your increasing workforce the result is a housing shortage which inevitably leads to high prices. If people choose to "blame it on immigration" we can only assume that they are seeing the issue through eyes that are clouded with prejudice. Other factors are increasing levels of divorce, creating a need for 2 properties where one previously sufficed. And last but not least, we are living longer and many older people can afford to occupy a lot of space. When Victorian villas were built they would have housed a family of 8 or more, plus a couple of servants.

I don't know how to do links, I am afraid but there is an interesting article in the housing section of the Guardian website about testing a "sleep pod" for the homeless. it is very small, but it does look nice.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/housing-for-older-people-inquiry-new-clg-committee-to-continue/

www.24housing.co.uk/news/direct-link-between-welfare-changes-and-rough-sleeping-rise/

If this is done, there will be more housing available for families. I like the idea of right-sizing rather than downsizing.
80% of the homes we will live in in 2050 have already been built. Therefore it makes sense to focus on homes for the elderly.

"The LGA said at least 80% of the homes we will inhabit in 2050 have already been built, so it is crucial that councils have sufficient funding to adapt existing housing, which is a vital component in supporting older people’s independence, health and well-being and as such should be at the heart of integrated health and care strategies.

Council leaders are also warning a chronic under-supply of desirable, affordable and ‘age-friendly’ homes with enough space for older people to get around, and the ability for easy adaptations to be made, to cope with care needs.

This is leaving retirees wanting to ‘right-size’ to more manageable accommodation unable to do so.

The LGA is calling for the government to help support a ‘residential revolution’ for older people’s housing by giving councils the tools to deliver more housing that supports positive and healthy ageing."

www.24housing.co.uk/news/residential-revolution-needed-for-englands-ageing-population-says-lga/

I can't remember how long ago it was but modern homes are supposed to be built to accommodate all stages of life.
In which case I can never understand why they are mainly built three-storey these days. I know it's to use less space, but it's no good for my stage of life.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/government-funded-affordable-homes-plummet-by-50/

This just shows how little the government cares about housing policy.

There's an all party parliamentary group on homes for the elderly in the countryside. It will meet for months, then it's reccomendations will be shelved, and we will be blamed again for house-blocking.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/appg-we-must-get-housing-options-right-for-older-people-in-the-countryside/

Eloethan, my husband designed modular homes in the 70s.
I know what they are.
However, petra first of all said all homes shouldn't be made of brick, and when I told her they weren't in the 70s, she then told me that timberframed houses were built in mesolithic times.
Can you not see the contradiction there?

Some of the homes even had district heating in the 70s, which is seen as new now.

"Austerity" has a lot to answer for.

The crazy thing is that these policies that create homelessness (universal benefit, cutbacks to housing benefit, welfare caps, lack of social housing etc) don't even save the state money as temporary housing for homeless families costs more than building new homes or subsidising their rent.

Add to that, the knock-on effects on mental health, family breakdown, disrupted education resulting in families or individuals needing more support over the years, results in a short term saving but a very expensive policy in the long term.

durhamjen I think petra was saying that there are new ways of building now, not just the traditional brick. For example, prefabricated homes - not like the old "prefabs" but a much more modern take on them. There is also lots of innovation around modular homes where spaces can be adjusted to meet changing needs. I think we are a bit stuck in a rut in this country because developers just carry on replicating previous projects because it's easier than investigating new methods and designs.

In the late 1970s we were living in hospital rented accommodation - a prefabricated bungalow. It was warm and spacious with a lovely square kitchen (the best kitchen I've ever had) and had wide patio doors onto the garden. I'd have been very happy to buy it rather than rent it - but of course we were lucky to have been able to rent a hospital house. I'm not sure that there is such a thing now for the families of medical, nursing and care staff.

politicalscrapbook.net/2017/09/osborne-ordered-standard-staff-not-to-go-ott-on-grenfell-over-fears-his-cuts-would-be-blamed/

Austerity and Grenfell again.

So why are you saying not every house has to be built of brick?
Make your mind up. You appear to be arguing with yourself.

durhamjen
I think you'll find it was a long time before the 70s.
Archaeologists have found timber framed houses in Britain dating back to the Mesolithic period, over 10,000 yrs ago.

What have bricks got to do with it?
We were building in timberframe in the 70s.

Is the biggest factor governments not prioritising housebuilding - or can they do nothing to make this happen?

Fewer homes being built
Decrease in social housing
More people living alone
People living for longer
Housing benefit changes
Fewer community support services
Personal debt
Closure of psychiatric facilities
Rising housing costs...............
All of the above contribute to the rise in homelessness.

GracesGran
All good points on your post at @23.24.
Re the building houses quickly. This is another thing that angers me, not every building has to be built in brick. There are wonderful new innovations in building doing on all over the world.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2017/09/13/austerity-britain-grenfell/

A video to watch about austerity and Grenfell. It pulls together so many threads.

It disgusts me that this government is so callous and blatantly looks after the more privileged. Every time unemployment figures are said to have dropped, I find myself thinking of all those people trying to scrape a living on on zero-hour contracts who are counted as employed.

Thank you Gracesgran for your OP and trying to raise awareness about issues surrounding welfare reforms and homelessness. It is scandalous enough that benefits have been trimmed past the bone; it seems morally depraved to me that people can simply 'look the other way.' and say 'I'm alright Jack!'

Sadly 'There's none so blind as them that cannot see' - another of my mother's sayings that rings so true.

simplest are herbs?

I believe the availability of housing benefit, calculated as a % of average rents in an area, is a cause of rents going up.

Of course, now the government is trying to reduce that cost to themselves by demonising the recipients rather than the greedy landlords. and I do mean greedy ones, as dj does, and not responsible ones.

OK so it is obviously supply and demand and some of the demand comes from net migration but it also comes from:

*Increasing life expectancy (we just occupy houses for longer)
*Decreasing average household size (fewer generations in each property)
*Increased buy-to-let (removing housing from the open market)

The lack of supply comes from:

*Fewer housebuilders (the global financial crisis)
*Decline in state housebuilding (political choice)
*The planning system (political choice)

Although the net migration has had an effect it seems we are also very bad at building houses quickly and haven't developed this even thought we knew we needed more fast.

My post at 22:35 was about whether Grenfell could be blamed on austerity.
Your response is rather sick in the circumstances, petra.

Simples are herbs, petra, and I really don't think you mean that.

Sorry, paddyann, I didn't mean people like you, I meant greedy landlords.
We paid £600 a month rent for a three bedroomed bungalow when we first moved to this village in 2010.

My granddaughter is paying more than that for a two-bed flat in Salford, but that's to a landlord who owns about fifty similar in the same few blocks. He puts his rent up every year.
Tony Blair and his wife have bought 38 properties since he left Downing Street, lots of them flats in Stockport. They own ten houses and 27 flats between the family, most of them rented out. I call them greedy landlords.

durhamjen
In answer to your question @ 22.35: supply and demand, simples.
In 2011, 6yrs ago our population was 63.2 mil. Now it's 65/66+ mil.
More people want housing, housing shortage, rents go up.
Only so many jobs, lots of people want those jobs, wages drop, simples.