jetblack wrote:This is what a country looks like when there is no-one steering the ship - when the deregulation of markets (combined with a "government" subservience to the global elite) takes precedence over the life chances and health and safety of ordinary citizens - when the profit motive is put above the greater public welfare. The empty properties in Kensington aren't (currently) peoples homes - they are safe haven investment vehicles. For the leader of the council to tell us that it might take several years to permanently rehome the victims of Grenfell Tower, and even then it might be outwith the borough, when there are 1400 properties stood empty on his own patch is unforgivable.
Everything in this country is about making money, and persuading people that it's for the best. Cameron said in 2012 that he wanted to slash regulations so that businesses can flourish. People wanted to leave the EU because of all their regulations and 'red tape'. That 'red tape' says flats should have sprinklers and shouldn't catch fire within 30 minutes. Scrap that red tape and landlords can save £5000 on a £10m refurb. Around £50 per life lost so they can squeeze every last penny out of their tenants. Landlords rent out buildings that no one would should have to live in, let alone pay into the pocket of a landlord for the privilege.
I don't really agree with requisitioning people's homes, but more should be done to combat houses being left empty. We have a housing crisis while hundreds of thousands of houses sit empty and no one wants to do a thing about it. People are priced out of the town they grew up in, a massive problem in London as well as coastal towns, for what is basically a high-interest savings account. There are plenty of ways of tackling that, like a land value tax, but it will never happen because landlords, despite being leeches on society, wont allow it.
Churchill said it best over 100 years ago. Landlords (with some exceptions) and people sitting on un-used land/property are scum:
"Roads are made, streets are made, services are improved, electric light turns night into day, water is brought from reservoirs a hundred miles off in the mountains – and all the while the landlord sits still. To not one of those improvements does the land monopolist contribute, and yet by every one of them the value of his land is enhanced. He renders no service to the community, he contributes nothing to the general welfare, he contributes nothing to the process from which his own enrichment is derived ... the unearned increment on the land is reaped by the land monopolist in exact proportion, not to the service, but to the disservice done."
