Tuc Says Poor Housing Is Affecting Workplaces

A report this week from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) highlights the importance of adequate housing for Britain's workforce.

While Gateshead Council are concerned with luxury housing costing up to 10 times the average Tyneside salary the TUC report, Fair Homes: Building a New Deal for Housing, says that as falling house prices could see the private sector cutting back on the number of new homes it releases onto the market, the public sector will need to step into the breach and provide more social homes.

In the absence of a proper social housing strategy local authorities have relied on the private sector as if they (the builders) were part of social services. In fact today's news that Taylor Wimpey, Britain's largest house builder, has been caught out by falling values in it's massive "land bank" shows that developers were carefully maintaining a shortage of housing to boost profit. The report highlights this by saying;

"it is no good building new homes if young workers cannot afford to buy them"

Which leads us back to the bizarre demolition of homes in Saltwell and Bensham. The current plan is to grass over the demolished homes. Presumably in a speculative bid to wait for land prices to rise an make a profit. The TUC seem to say Gateshead should be building and not demolishing.

Link
TUC Housing Report