The party conference season gives MP’s a chance to play rough and have a swing at existing arrangements. At last week’s excellent Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, Vince Cable, business secretary in the coalition government, made proposals to increase the stock of social housing. As well as introducing regulated Mortgage Rescue Schemes to allow families struggling with repayments to sell all or part of the equity in their house and rent it back from a housing association or private firm to help keep them in their homes, Mr Cable said.
“After years of this Government’s apathy, which allowed the housing market to boom hopelessly out of control, millions are now feeling the painful consequences of a market in freefall.
Now is also the time to allow councils and Registered Social Landlords to borrow against their assets to buy up unsold properties and sites from building companies in order to replenish the social housing stock, to deal with the current 1.67 million households on social housing waiting lists.”
There is an easy way of collating yardage that would stimulate the ailing building economy and provide those much needed for homes. The road map to recovery is a simple drive. Pick up any A to Z street map and open it on any random two-page spread and the answer is staring you in the face.
There are too many golf courses.
They’re not hidden away like Wally, they’re there on every page. Little dollops of green plastered at varying intervals. A complete and utter waste of space. Consider a regulation par 4 golf hole. How many people use it at the one time? Four at the most, in a Fourball, say. Four people with 400 yards to themselves. Criminal. The rest of the time it’s sitting vacant. Well it’s time to condemn it.
Forcibly buying these courses from the owners, at low cost I might add, a kind of reverse windfall tax, would give us enough land to build new urban landscapes. Let’s get those building sites erected on England’s greens and make them more pleasant for more of the population. As for the golfers, they’ll just have to take up a more sensible pastime.
Boadicea's Chariot 
But, but, JW, aren’t many of them officially ‘green belt’ which depending on which day of the week it is, the gubmint appears to want to preserve or not?
There is a large amount of housing stock currently empty that needs renovating before any more building is done. No point building more social housing for uninvited guests. They must sort out their own accommodation. That might shorten the waiting lists. Sorry to see Cable advocating more borrowing. “Forcible buying” – how very illiberal and undemocratic, especially “at low cost”.
Well it is time to downgrade their official status, J. From what I’ve witnessed golfers have a negative effect on the environment. Slicing the turf, throwing clubs about, disrupting the wildlife with their wayward balls not to mention the lazy ones that use golf buggies and pollute the atmosphere.
Gulp, hello Sheona, thank you for your comment. The first two paragraphs are Mr Cable’s the more, um, extreme passages are mine. I don’t like golf.
Janus, you could move all golf courses to the seaside where the sea breezes, aka gales in Scotland, would disperse any pollution. The negative effects you mention are all on private property and the idiots – sorry, golfers – pay for its upkeep.
TR, I am not a golfer as I said elsewhere, so I have some sympathy with your plans. I am not much into gardening either or dogs for that matter, so I reckon places like Regent’s Park, Hyde Park, Richmond Park, Wimbledon Common, Clapham Common could all be converted into high density housing. Can’t stand football, so all the footy grounds should go too, but they must be converted to rugby fields.
Seriously though, I think the UK could learn something from the Yanks and create more housing specifically for rent. In the US there are thousands of apartment complexes owed and managed by companies. Economies of scale mean that all sorts of extra services and facilities are provided at lower prices than any individual could afford. Gyms, swimming pools, club houses, dry cleaning services etc, all within the grounds. Even parking becomes less of an issue, (where space is at a premium) since going under ground becomes cost effective. The British are obsessed with home ownership, which given the nature of the market, is understandable. But it provides much less flexibility, opportunity and mobility than an efficient rental market. This is where I lived for a few years when I was in Atlanta. Very reasonable and perfectly comfortable. http://www.villageatlakepark.com/gallery
Companies are much more likely to adhere to the rental laws than individual land lords are.
I’m with sheona, throw out the illegals, deport ne’er-do-well wogs, renovate existing housing, make divorces more difficult and make abortion mandatory! That should reduce demand.
Typical fucking liberals steal the skin off a rice pudding as long as it wasn’t theirs!!!
Oh, and lets burn liberal PCers at the stake and occupy their houses first. They might as well produce some useful ‘son et lumiere’ for BBQ rather than the hot air they generally produce from every orifice.
There seems no point in making divorce more difficult, Christina, since so few couples get married nowadays. But stopping unmarried teenage mums automatically getting council housing would free up a fair amount of social housing and perhaps stop the trap these girls fall into of being taken advantage of by homeless males.
Sipu, it is always a privilege to receive a comment from your good self. You make some good points about the rental system though, with respect, the rugby/football part of your speech was pure duff.
Christina. just when I thought you were going to disappoint me with a lack of exclamation marks, you hit me with a treble!!!
sheona, no benefits unless marriage certificates were produced!
In fact, we would end up having to knock down housing there would be such a surfeit.
royalist, typical fucking* liberals are worth 3!s every time!
* Merely adjectival, we don’t want them breeding like flies!