Housing

Articles

Saving council housing by Tom Walker (April 2009)

A decade ago, with New Labour stepping up the Tory sell-offs, council housing seemed to be approaching extinction. Tom Walker looks at Defend Council Housing, a campaign that has stopped privatisation in its tracks

Alternative home sweet home by Paul Chatterton, Larch Maxey, Jenny Pickerill (April 2007)

There are many ways to provide housing outside the simple rent or buy culture that dominates society, write Paul Chatterton, Larch Maxey and Jenny Pickerill

Time to buy up and sell out? by Auntie (October 2004)

Dear Auntie,

All my mates talk about these days is property, property, property. They’re buying up places in areas that are up and coming with plans to sell them on when the price is right. They keep harassing me to do the same, saying it’s a necessary ’investment’ because by the time I retire there will be no state pensions left. While the idea of no longer paying fat-cat landlords is tempting, homeowning goes against all my political principles: driving up house prices hits the poor the hardest. So should I continue to prop up the landowning class or buy up and sell out?

Yours,

Property is Theft

Squatting for beginners by Jim Paton (June 2004)

Squatting? That was in the 1970s, wasn’t it? Now, here’s a secret that always astonishes the media: wherever there are homeless people and empty buildings, there’s squatting. The latest scare has involved a few people who’ve become the owners of houses they squatted for many years. But what the press doesn’t say is that the law has changed and this isn’t likely to happen if you’re starting out now. The real story is that if you have nowhere to live and little money, squatting may be your only hope of a roof over your head. By Jim Paton of the Advisory Service for Squatters