Not all that long ago, renting a home on the free market was the essential penny-saving survival means in the UK. It was once cheaper and more readily available than a lifelong commitment to housing ownership (always assuming the unlikelihood of affording, or even being eligible for, a mortgage).
But rampant financialization has rapidly sponged up rental accommodation, placing it in the hands of own-to-rent landlords. Their profits are sweetened year after year by regulations that favour rent hikes and even greater profitability that allow private landlords to legally gouge their tenants.
For those with lower incomes, public assistance to buy a home is no solution. Nor are the promised renter housing security measures that never arrive, and eviction notices find their way to renter doorsteps with no more legitimacy than a government sanctioned ‘just because.’
Jacobin explores this rapidly deepening housing crisis, before making a case for one tried and true solution: a modernized form of social housing.
Read more in JACOBIN: To Fix the Housing Crisis, We Need Better Public Housing, Not More Homeowners
