Planning system needs overhaul
THERE is a dialectic and a relationship between defeating unemployment, solving the recession and defeating the mess left behind by Covid. That is, by addressing the housing crisis using supply-side economics.
Housing is one of our priorities and not just a financial investment. It should not be seen as merely a market-based product. Home is also about nation, community and belonging. So, when we address the material problem of homelessness and poverty housing, we also strengthen ourselves spiritually.
The economy should serve people and the planet, not the converse, and should involve all of us in the decisionmaking, not just the rich elite. Giving power back to the community is thus an essential element within the solution. It is of equal importance for all the various social groups to interact and cooperate for true democracy to function, for example charities and the local planning department and local unemployed and housing associations, at the same time as abolishing our sectarian differences.
In order to solve the housing crisis, we must unite as a community and demand that the people in power listen to us. Power should be devolved back to the locality and the whole planning system needs to be looked at and changed.
In a super-rich country, it is laughable to suggest that a basic need such as a home cannot be easily addressed. If these idiots that govern us thought less of duck pate and tailored suits, they might grasp the simplicity of household economics coalescing with social need. The resources for housing are there, it is about poverty of imagination that it still isn’t addressed. The need for social affordable housing is a basic human right and could be managed by the locality quite easily. At the same time, we keep the economy afloat and fend off the slump.
The election next May is our opportunity to create a social movement for change. The Greens, Labour and Plaid all believe in a form of supply-side economics. We must tell politicians we need decent, affordable social housing if they want our vote. Homes should be high up on the agenda, but we need radical devolution to achieve it. The priorities of the administration are sickening. No Trident.
Mr J Bucke Cefn Glas, Bridgend