by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
A Tory think tank is urging government to knock down all tower blocks and build terraced homes instead.
Nice idea but where would they be building all those homes? And what would happen to our towns and cities? They'd be devoid of people as many of the British towns and cities are already.
The only way that this would ever work is by building on most of the countryside and creating more suburbs and causing more need to travel from far distances to work in the towns and cities.
The reason, I am sure that anyone can see, is that this Tory think tank, much like a great majority of politicians, are being lobbied and paid by the building industry, the likes of McAlpine, Barrats, Laing, and others.
As I have said before, there are no tax breaks from refurbishing existing homes but lots for building new ones and thus the aim is always to build new rather than to refurbish.
Now the government is talking, also, about converting former business premises, such as offices, into homes and it is about time too. However, squatters have been doing that already for ages, especially with old hospitals and such like and why not.
But why do the big building companies have to get involved in this? Why not simply allow people to do it themselves, such as squatters have done and do?
The answer to those rhetorical questions is, obviously, a simple one. It would not allow the big building companies to make large profits and get government monies and neither could the politicians get any kickbacks.
How do those people of that Tory think-tank consider housing everyone, as it is claimed that we have a housing crisis, when they turn tower blocks, which can be made into nice and desirable places to live, as the refurbishment of some in the Docklands have shown, if they tear them down and replace them with houses.
This was done some years back with an old housing estate in Hackney which had several thousand dwellings. It was replaced with an estate of 500 homes while the country was in a severe homelessness crisis.
As per usual those politicians and civil servants live in cloud cuckoo land but it is not just that. We are also looking here at serious corruption in high places and the actions of lobby groups.
Tearing down tower blocks and replacing them with houses with gardens, and then moving others out to G-d only knows where does not solve things.
It is also an attempt, such as it is and was with the Ocean Estate in Stepney, the Robin Hood Estate in Poplan, and places such as Kelson House on the Isle of Dogs, a case of getting rid of the working class people in the area and relocating them elsewhere and selling the homes off to developers or, as in the case of Kelson House and others, to the banking class in Docklands.
And let no one think that this is only happening under the Tories.. It is not. Politicians of the so-called Labor Party are equally adept in this and under the Blair and Brown governments this continued in the same way as under Thatcher and Major.
Until the people realize that the majority of politicians are corrupt and have but their own interest at heart this will continue unabated and a change in government will not make one iota of a difference. Only a change in system is the alternative. But, the majority of the people are scared to move against the status quo and hence the problems remain.
© 2013
