Sir,
Two of your stories (15 Dec) come together: John Prescott's
order that 50% of new dwellings in central London must be
affordable and the massive current and projected immigration
into Britain, half of which will settle in London and its
environs and put impossible strains on an already fraught
housing situation.
Westminster Council is correct in describing Prescott's
order as "economically illiterate". That he should make such
an absurd demand is merely a symptom of the desperation of
the Government. What the Government should be addressing are
the reasons for London's housing shortage.
Apart from the immigrant flow, these reasons are: overly
restrictive planning laws, the gross failure of Government to
fund social housing adequately, land hoarding by developers
and land hoarding by public bodies. The Government should
relax planning laws, build sufficient social housing and
stop land hoarding by forcing developers (through tax) and
public bodies (through reduced funding) to utilise the vacant
land.
As for the immigrant influx, most of those coming compete
for housing at the lower end of the scale, especially for
council and Housing Association properties. For example, in
my own borough of Camden, the Camden New Journal reported
6/3/03 that "There are 15,000 refugees in Camden, or seven
per cent of the borough's population, a scrutiny panel on
employing and educating refugees has found." Such people
often end up in scarce social housing. Imagine how those
born and bred in this country on the council feel when they
see immigrants pushed ahead of them in the housing queue.
The only general answer is to end mass immigration,
something that would meet with the approval of the vast
majority of Britons. A partial London solution would be to
reserve all social housing in London for British citizens.
Work permits could also be withheld for those wishing to be
employed in acute housing shortage areas such as London.
Yours sincerely,
Robert Henderson
--
--
Robert Henderson
phi...@anywhere.demon.co.uk
Blair Scandal web site at http://www.geocities.com/blairscandal/
Personal web site at http://www.anywhere.demon.co.uk
You managed to get it published under your own name?
--
Paul Hyett, Cheltenham
Yep. The management has changed. RH
That's very interesting. The Standard has been rabidly left for years. I was
surprised they ran 'white police discriminated against' on the front page this
week.
>Yep. The management has changed. RH >
>
>That's very interesting. The Standard has been rabidly left for years.
HAHAHAHA
JRP
It changed when Max Hastings left. RH
> I was
>surprised they ran 'white police discriminated against' on the front page this
>week.
They rarely seem to produce an edition these days without some crime
horror story featuring blacks or Asians. RH
Maybe they're finally doing what they are supposed to - reporting the
*news*.
--
Paul Hyett, Cheltenham
When the comment columns and editorials become race realist you will
know things have really changed. RH