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Point 1: A lot of people want to live in London. More, in point of fact, than there's really room for. Point 2: We, as a society, really dislike the idea of
by Lazare 12y ago
Point 1: A lot of people want to live in London. More, in point of fact, than there's really room for.
Point 2: We, as a society, really dislike the idea of telling people where they can and cannot live. "Your papers, please" is a punchline, not a blueprint.
Point 3: Britain, in specific, is very leary about development. Not without reason, but even though it would be absurdly profitable to build a fuckton of cheap, efficient, high rise apartments, it is and will remain illegal. (Which is fine; build the apartments and then you have traffic issues, etc. My point is that you can't do this, not that you should.)
Combine these three points, and you'll get high rents and frustrated people. But unless you have a suggestion on how to change one of those points, it's not going to change, is it? (Well, I guess you could say the high cost of housing is changing point 1 by making London less desirable, but clearly, it's not happening quickly.)
Seriously though, it feels like the article is missing a conclusion. "Here's a thing that sucks, but let's not think about why it exists or how it might be fixed."
(But maybe I'm just being grumpy, I dunno.)
- a8da6b0c91d 12y agoThe population of London has been declining for many years, so point #1 is out.
- Lazare 12y agoThat's actually untrue. Going off census data (which is taken every decade, roughly), it increased until 1939, then declined until 1981, then has been increasing since then—slowly at first, but lately more rapidly. If it hasn't hit an all-time high already, it will very soon. ...which makes sense, given that housing prices have been rising. Source: http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/indicators/1_3.gif http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/indicators/1_3.gif
- m-i-l 12y agoAccording to many sources (e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31082941 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31082941 ) the population of London has recently reached a record high and predicted to rise by 25-30% over the next 35 years.
- im_a_lawyer 12y agocan't the government just throw a couple billion to a bunch of startups in Manchester or something in order to encourage people to move there, and once Manchester can "stand on its own" with its own London like economy built by that initial investment, take away that money and invest it in some other city and repeat again and again. I don't necessarily want to live in London, but I want to live in a city that's like London in terms of vibrancy and job opportunities. Solution - build more Londons.