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They also introduced the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947, which made it illegal to build any kind of housing or modify existing housing without asking per
by _dain_ 3y ago
They also introduced the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947, which made it illegal to build any kind of housing or modify existing housing without asking permission from the government. We would not need council housing nowadays if the private sector were simply allowed to fill the market demand. We are no longer in the days when children played in the rubble of cities flattened by the Luftwaffe.
Blaming Thatcher is too kind to the current government. They're the ones who keep listening to nimbys. Thatcher's mistake is that she didn't go far enough; axing the 1947 Act and its descendants should have been part of the supply-side reforms.
The fondness for council housing is an example of a peculiar psychological coping mechanism of Britons, stemming from imperial decline. We pretend a necessary evil was something positively desirable all along. The Americans are right, it is actually embarrassing to have 42% of your population in state-owned housing, I'm sorry to say.
- gorgoiler 3y agoOne counterpoint to this is Lisbon, with its unregulated building codes. If you’ve shoulder barged a doorway that’s too narrow, looked out of a window that’s one third obscured by a brick wall, or sat on the can and had your knees hit the walls, you’ll know what I mean. Planning and standards aren’t quite the same thing, but unregulated building has negative consequences on quality if not quantity. Does terrible Portuguese architecture go hand in hand with an abundance of affordable housing?
- _dain_ 3y agoThis is a common fallacy trotted out by opponents of planning deregulation. They conflate it with building codes, as if the planning laws have anything to do with health and safety, fire mitigation, and so on. The example we should look to is Japan. Being a country prone to earthquakes and tsunamis, they have rigorous building codes. But they have very loose planning restrictions. Meaning, so long as you make the building safe and habitable, you have a great deal of latitude to build what you want, by right, within an urban or suburban area. https://twitter.com/380kmh/status/1638247647776473089 https://twitter.com/380kmh/status/1638247647776473089 https://twitter.com/AntBreach/status/1121362679367598080 https://twitter.com/AntBreach/status/1121362679367598080 It is that key phrase "by right" which is lacking in the UK. You cannot build anything by right. This must change.
- atchoo 3y agoPlease no-one pay this extreme ideological crankery any note.
- _dain_ 3y agofeel free to give a counterargument anytime