Social housing can benefit us all

ONCE again there is a call for more “Quality Social Housing”. Evidently three million more suitable properties are needed.

The trouble is the present policies are centred around building “Affordable Housing” which is defined as a percentage of each area’s average income.

But this is still out of reach of the actual people that need social housing, such as the homeless, unemployed, low income and immigrants.

Policies to date have relied on private developers to build such properties which again I feel is the wrong approach as they can’t see the benefits or the profit.

We need both national and local government to recognise the problem and build quality Social housing, otherwise the problem will never go away.

Economically there are tremendous benefits for all of us to provide homes for these needy people. Local government should adopt policies of not just allocating a small percentage of each new development for affordable housing, but also initiatives for building quality social housing close to infrastructure and amenities (for jobs).

For example: Large dormitory type buildings with studio flats.

Council/Housing Association-owned large complexes for families equating to well below local average wages.

The latter reminds me of the initiatives adopted after WW2 when the prefabs were built quickly and cost effectively.

The number of houses built was tremendous. We now have better materials, equipment and skilled builders to undertake similar initiatives.

It just needs leadership and the will to get on with it.

An added benefit would be to create jobs and more money circulating the economy – a win win.