Will the People of This Country Ever See an End to the Housing Crisis?
The shortage of housing which is prevailing in the country is something that has been spoken about for quite some time. People have been hearing regularly that the government is going to do something, which will alleviate the situation. Numerous proposals have been put forward only to be relegated to the background. People have perhaps lost hope that they will ever see an end with the crisis which has been hounding the country for over two decades.
A recent report has appeared in the BBC stating that activity within the construction industry has slowed down during the first quarter of 2012. Public and private builders together have only started 24,100 constructions, which will ultimately result in a sum total of hundred thousand properties being constructed throughout the year. This gives people an opportunity to say that the government is not doing enough to ease the crisis which has been around for quite some time. On the other hand, the government claims that they have made good progress on this front but agrees that they still have a long way to go.
It has been mentioned quite often that the country needs around 240,000 new homes every year to meet the demands of the population. The population of the country is increasing at a pace that was not taken into account by the government earlier. Presently, the government has said that they will be able to provide 170,000 new homes by the end of the year which will still leave a shortage of 70,000. They have also clarified that housing benefits will be cut down by 2013, which means that more people will face the prospect of becoming homeless.
Much has been spoken about how commercial landlords throughout the country are taking advantage of the present position and increasing rental values of properties. It has been said that the government is doing everything it can to refrain commercial landlords from indulging in such actions.However rental values still remain high with people having to spend a greater portion of their income on housing when trying to have a roof over their heads.
The construction industry is definitely aware of the situation and is perhaps looking forward to taking advantage of it in their way. They have slowed down construction activity to a point where the housing crisis will continue endlessly. The government can put forward a number of plans to improve the situation but will make no headway, unless they can convince the construction industry to begin acting earnestly.
The large numbers of homeless in the country and prospective home buyers would not be wrong if they said that the housing crisis will not see an end soon. No positive signals are being seen from the government or the construction industry to build more affordable homes across the country. On the contrary, a number of objections can be seen from landowners about why construction activity should not be carried out in certain belts of the country. With conditions like these facing people, it is unlikely that the crisis which is prevailing will reach its culmination soon.
