Ever since the British parliament passed the Town & Country Planning Act in 1947, housing in that nation has gotten less and less affordable. As a result, the average size of new homes today is only 925 square feet, down 44 percent from the average size in 1920. Meanwhile, the average size of new home in the United States in 2013 was 2,598 square feet, up 56 percent from 1,660 square feet forty years before.As the post points out, this isn't a party issue - both major parties are essentially identical on this, just as both major US parties are identical on the issue of immigration.
Eric Pickles, Britain’s community secretary, blames the problem on “Labour policy, which decreed that at least 30 homes had to be built on every hectare of land” (about 12 per acre). But we know the problems go back well before the previous government, and the Tories had plenty of chances to reverse the policies in the Town & Country Planning Act.
Instead, this is an issue of class war waged by a self-anointed "elite" against a middle class they hold in contempt.
5 comments:
That's leaving a mark...
Too big for coolies. Get a tent you piss ant.
There is never a shortage of people who want to tell you how to live. The problem is keeping them away from the power to make you do as they think you should.
Just say NO.
OMMAG, unfortunately the very people who are attracted to political office are the people who very much believe they know better than you.
There are some exceptions, sure, but most of them don't last long or they eventually get corrupted into thinking the same way.
As far as housing, the one thing the US has always had over the UK is space. But even now with more and more "public" lands being declared we are finding that the physical space we have enjoyed is not the only limiting factor to our ability to build bigger and bigger homes. I'm sure we are just a few years away from new legislation aimed at solving the "problem" of big homes.
Oddly, that may turn out to be a very nice thing, given the cost/taxes etc on larger houses, not to mention the ever increasing energy cost of carbon free energy. I think they're going to appreciate the savings.
I'd say they were very forward thinking, except they weren't - thinking that is.
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