Around the Houses

'Around the houses?' The idiom that suggests that the subject of importance has been arrived at by a somewhat circuitous route. To 'go all around the houses,' meaning to perhaps procrastinate, maybe as a means of more carefully rounding upon a targeted subject before 'biting the bullet' and 'thrashing it out!' Idioms, are they not the curse of the modern language?

All manner of eventualities might have brought about such a state of affairs. There might be embarrassment, guilt, nervousness, anxiety, even fear, involved in 'going all around the houses' prior to getting to the appointed house as 'twere.

I'm not sure that it really is 'going all round the house' if the intention never was to get there in the first place. But in this particular instance, be very clear, it is still very much about 'the houses.'

I doubt that it will have come as any sort of surprise to have learned that the UK is facing a housing crisis. "What, another one?" we might question. More like, "What still? What, the very same one that started some time in the early 1980s and then just kept on morphing, writhing about like some sort of tail-grasped serpent, resurfacing in pretend clothing and disguise, presenting covertly from behind all manner of puppets, slipping and sliding and refusing to be pinned down, hiding behind another more in vogue crisis for a few years, but never actually being solved. Or even properly addressed? Or even seriously being acknowledged? That one?"

Yes, that one!



The UK has a housing crisis! The headline tells the story... but, as so often with the media, only a very selective and small part of the story. "Everything ticking along splendidly," might just as well have sufficed. Because every financial crisis has a flip side; in the world of the idiom every cloud has that silver lining. "The UK is a thriving housing investment opportunity!" That, quite obviously, is the desired and celebrated headline, but that can't be the one that's presented can it? Those 'in the know' already know and those that don't, some of them, will 'need' to be able to read the story entirely differently.

When 'Thatcher the everything snatcher' sold off council stock under the 'Right to Buy' facade of giving council house tenants a home of their own, the game plan was that of a far longer period of play. Uncle Sid and Auntie Hattie may well have bought and loved-to-pieces their council house, died and handed it on to whoever. It may still be a loved and cherished home...

... or it may now be one tiny unit in a significant property portfolio of some faceless or otherwise unscrupulous landlord, who is looking to exploit each and every turn in the economy. No tenant security, no guarantees, no freedom from the prepayment meter, no chance of escaping the dark economy of 'the housing crisis.' You may even have voted for your landlord, in either the General or the Regional Elections, quite conceivably both!



"Home ownership in England at lowest level in 30 years," reads just as honestly when phrased, "Privately rented homes at highest level in 30 years." Probably this could even more accurately be typed as "... highest level ever." To contest that, "private landlord occurrence is at its highest," is less certain, although quite possibly also true. Many of the most 'fortunate' private landlords will today be able to boast of considerably larger 'portfolios' than 30 years ago. So maybe there's a smaller percentage of landlords who now lay claim to a far higher proportion of properties? I couldn't say.

Already, as I sit typing this, the storyline has moved on. The following day it was something about the regulation of energy provision, the day after that the storyline had morphed again. "Home ownership in England at lowest level in 30 years," already like gossamer in the breeze. Whatever it might be, it might not be quite the same problem, but if it touches upon inequality it might be affecting entirely the same sections of the populace. I doubt that the desire to solve whatever it is will be that significant either.

The housing issue is tied in strongly with the growing disparity between highest earners (landlords) and lowest earners (tenants). Or quite possibly landlords (MPs) and tenants (voters). The issue is being reported upon by the BBC (Lord Birkenhead, salary £450,000), The Sun (Murdoch worth £7.6 billion), The Daily Mail (Paul Dacre 2015 take home £1.48 million), ITV (Adam Crozier £8 million take home in 2013), and other nefarious bods. And what do we think that they will be wanting, with regards to any sort of 'solution?'



Now, by 'solution,' I will suggest, we don't really mean solution, instead we mean 'a solution.' I'm going to suggest- because how could I possibly know what the MPs and the powerful elite will cobble together?- that any solution will not be looking to, say, build large numbers of council homes or invest considerably in social housing schemes. We already know this because the government are currently trying very hard to ensure that huge chunks of social housing quickly changes hands, in to the 'happy' control of private landlords. I would also contend that they will not be looking to narrow the income disparity, nor will they be looking to redefine mortgages as being calculated upon one salary (say 3.5 times salary). Nor will they be looking to address the serious issue of homes standing empty, nor ownership of acres of properties by foreign 'investors.' Of course they are not investing so that any wider community might benefit. Nor will they be looking to considerably strengthen tenants' rights, nor to regulate rents. Nor will they be looking to regulate building so that, for example, we no longer produced the smallest homes in Western Europe. Nor will they be looking to tax home ownership progressively, nor to take any other measure that might seriously restrict multiple home ownership.

Whatever the 'solution' is it's not going to be a solution, is it? Because, the problem isn't that we're deep in a crisis, it's because we're absolutely raking it in! Things have never been so good!

The trick is in making it look like it's a 'crisis' that we care about.