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Labour housing plans could destroy 215,000 hectares of nature in England, analysis shows (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

NIMBYism is killing this country. We have the smallest available housing stock in Europe by some margin. Labour are right to be trying to make a dent in the issue.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (3 children)

They could always start with this issue:

https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/why-empty-homes-matter

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The effect of this would be extremely minimal. Almost all empty homes in the UK are homes that are temporarily empty pending sale or between renters. Having empty homes is actually extremely normal, you can't really not have empty homes, as people are always moving.

With rare exceptions, empty homes aren't just sitting there empty for years, like this article implies. The landlords would much rather rent them out and make money.

The UK has far fewer empty empty homes than anywhere else in the developed world. Our housing stock isn't enough.

There's no other option but to build more. I hope Labour's plans can help with that, but who knows. And it'd need to be sustained.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I said it's a start, not the whole answer to the housing problem.

Also, just as examples:

Long-term empty homes To be classed as ‘long-term empty’ a home has to be liable for council tax and to have been unfurnished and not lived in for over 6 months. This figure is increasing all the time, but as at October 2023, it was 261,189.

Holiday lets These are an extension of second homes - homes not used as primary residences but used to make profit for their owners, short-let for several weeks or months of each year, blocking them from becoming anybody’s home. In many cases owners ‘flip’ to business rates which are often cheaper than paying council tax. As at March 2024, there were believed to be at least 85,000 of these such dwellings, flipped to business rates.

https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/facts-and-figures

I'm not against building more homes. We need more council homes for sure. Housing should be seen as a human need, not a commodity to trade.

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