Council Houses

"The theory of council housing is great, the practice is crap, and we need to start again with better guidelines." - John MacKenzie

Agree with you 100% John.

"The right to buy" - the thing that Harold Wilson's Government was so vehmently opposed to. How many houses did Harold Wilson own before he entered politics? He owned five by the time he left - but he wouldn't let Jo Bloggs buy a place where he had been paying rent for decades - how remarkably egalitarian of Mr Wilson.

"Bring back rent caps and create a massive 'council house' building programme with councils actually building and maintaining the stock rather than private firms and HB and the over-all cost of the 'welfare state' will drop like a stone. Also, like existing (ex) council stock, they'll pay for themselves many times over." - wyrdolafr

There was only one thing wrong with that though wasn't there. Because of your rent caps over time it meant that the Councils could not afford to maintain the houses and they became slums. It meant that those who did own and maintain their own houses had to shell out and pay more in rates to cover the shortfall. No council houses never paid for themselves many times over, they eneded up as a millstone around the necks of the Councils who had to adminster them and maintain them.

If you do want Council Houses then you must have uncapped, realistic rents and you also need something else to help pay for them - a little thing similar in a way to what was called called Poll Tax - whereby the rent is paid by the number of those earning in a house.