If
you haven’t figured out what goes on, please wake up. Politicians
talk an awful lot about housing. We must build more houses. More and
yet more. Even to the point to free up green belt land. This to be
named grey belt land. Yet this morning there was shown a BBC news
item about the hospital crises. How many older people are in beds but
could be at home as long as there was some care. Care at home or care
in care homes. I know that sounds odd but care homes are NOT homes,
private homes. Anyway, the point here boils down to yet another
so-called effort by government to alleviate pressures on society
because there are too many homeless or families living in unsuitable
accommodation. In other words, for a long time now the demand for
housing has outstripped availability. This has been so for a very
long time. It seems the government has still not figured out why this
is so. Or if they know do not really want to address it right from
the bottom. The question of whether just building houses will solve
the problem is mote, it is a complex issue. The government does not
seem to be aware of some of the underlying causes. One is
affordability. And if we are talking about social housing then I am
afraid to say these tend to be sub-standard. Quick build, quick to
deteriorate.
In
my experience of having lived in the Rhondda valleys for most of my
life is that social housing quickly becomes sub-standard. The areas
of social housing also become areas where drugs are rife, drugs and
all the associated problems that come with them. Another problem is,
dare I say it, immigration. Whether legal or illegal, in the end
housing is needed. One cannot expect a million or so people coming in
to a country or area standing around like statues. They need
sustenance, a place to live, schools for the children, hospitals for
the sick. In other words there must be some infrastructure
development together with all the housing. Whether we like it or not
as we now are closing in on the magical 70 million of people, we’d
better look at our infrastructure and how we will improve it and
enlarge it. Looking at areas like the Rhondda, politicians do not
really want to do anything about infrastructure, the roads are in a
deplorable state. It is not something that bothers me but with the
number of cars on the roads it is important.
The
other thing is the difference between what they say and do. They want
cars off the road but public transport is one of the worst in the
country. The frank truth is government of all colours has lost its
grip. They lost control. Bar posturing and talking big they do very
little. It is virtually the same in all western countries. No wonder
the political right is making inroads. To be frank perhaps it is their time.
Let’s hope they have lost their more virulent members. We do not
want another Nazi revival.
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