As the Observer notes: 
Housebuilding in Britain will "fall off a cliff" this year due to a "catastrophic" combination of financial cutbacks and changes to the planning system, the government was warned last night.
The National Housing Federation, which represents England's housing associations, predicted the most vulnerable in society will be the hardest hit, with the number of affordable homes built this year in England slumping by as much as 65%, to 20,390. This would be the lowest number of affordable homes built since 1990, with profound consequences for the 4.5 million people on waiting lists across the country.
The federation said the private sector would also be affected and expressed fears the total number of homes that will be built this year in England would fall below the 100,000 mark, the lowest level for almost a century. Similar problems are predicted for Wales and Scotland.
Three obvious observations follow.
First, this is a front line cut, making a mockery of ConDem claims.
Second, this makes a mockery of the idea that cuts will only impact the public sector. House builders are in the private sector.
Third, this makes clear there is no doubt we need a Green New Deal: we propose how to deal with this issue.
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i posted this in haste on guardian’s cif, which is a hive of hate
As someone who has done the accounting for the parasitical offshore property funds and trust admin; let alone the use of the debt as collateral to other devices to screw the UK public and then claim that their operations are funding the UK treasury (via thhe icelandic banks then…), the whole argument about about land theft by the rich holds firm. These people have no desire to improve society.
That aside, the buy to let, and the right to buy explosion propogated buy sociopathic and untested economic ideologues have proved disasterous to the development of the UK as a functioning economic force.
Only a paradigm shift to the ‘left’ will create the jobs and the houses we need to get a disenfranchised population off its knees and feel more comfortable about doing the jobs we need to rebuild our infrastructure – poor or not, a roof and and a job is more important than any aspiration created by PR conmen and media subservience.
Austerity maybe, but positive action, not cuts in our already deadening social structure, will make us feel like a country again.
Abolish ownership from offshore. Rehabilitate empty land. Tax those that resist. Tax the rich. Start from grass roots as we did post war. They will still be rich in comparison, but they will help rebuild our nation.
the typos are as RM has qualified before. i hate reading them, but there you go
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