The Housing Scandal

Another landmark in Margaret Thatcher's long-term goal of transferring as much wealth as possible from the poor to the rich has been realised. The rented sector in the housing market is now larger than the social housing sector. Thatcher privatised council housing in the early 1980's with the purpose of preventing working people from being housed in low rent, comfortable and secure housing. The government desired to close off the supply of housing in order to drive up the price of houses. In future all house building would be done by the private sector, or by so-called housing associations which were out of local authority control. They forced councils to raise rents by an average of 400% in order that a mortgage from the private sector would become economic and forbade local authorities to build any housing to replace housing that was purchased by the tenant. In addition, they forbade councils to spend any of the money they got from the sale of council houses, except for repairs and maintenance. Michael Corleone wouldn't have thought of such measures.

Such policies were purely ideological and had no practical value other than for profit for private sector businesses. As we now see they were disastrous, creating a massive housing shortage and the boom in house prices and therefore mortgages that led directly to the financial crisis of 2007-08. I trust that you have noticed that it is happening all over again, barely five years after the last disaster. These people are nothing if not consistent in their piracy. The present housing bubble must not be mistaken for the fact that they have not learned from their mistakes. It is not that, it is simply showing us that they don't care. If the housing situation leads to another crisis, they will be OK, they will have made their fortune and have it stashed away in some foreign bank. They have produced a record number of homelessness and an acute crisis in affordable housing, especially in the south of England. Private landlords now get housing benefit paid directly to them, allowing them to inflate rents to levels that most people cannot afford. This has resulted in a record number of empty properties in England and Wales as landlords restrict the supply of housing in order to drive up prices and rents. Some of the biggest beneficiaries of this policy are the royal family, including the Queen and the bonnie prince. All privatisations have been a disaster, but housing must take pride of place for bare faced gangsterism and exploitation. I remind you, Labour never lifted a finger to do anything about this situation in 13 years in government.

However, I again remind you that you get what you vote for. Should you vote no in September, this is what will happen increasingly in Scotland once Labour gets back into power. You have been warned.

Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat