Making affordable housing a distant prospect | Letter
The towns newly crowned as ‘affordable’ are simply the latest recipients of metropolitan overflow, says Richard EltringhamYour piece on “affordable commuter hotspots” was a welcome reminder that, in Britain, affordability is now a theoretical concept best observed from a moving train (Revealed: the new affordable commuter hotspots in Great Britain, 7 March). Only here could a house become “affordable” the moment you attach a season ticket priced like a minor surgical procedure. It’s the sort of logic that would make sense only to someone who has never attempted either.We’ve quietly accepted that the solution to unaffordable housing is … distance. Not building homes, not reforming planning, just encouraging people to live far enough away that the numbers look respectable on a spreadsheet. The towns newly crowned as “affordable” are simply the latest recipients of metropolitan overflow, rewarded with more commuters and none of the infrastructure. Continue reading...
The towns newly crowned as ‘affordable’ are simply the latest recipients of metropolitan overflow, says Richard Eltringham
Your piece on “affordable commuter hotspots” was a welcome reminder that, in Britain, affordability is now a theoretical concept best observed from a moving train (Revealed: the new affordable commuter hotspots in Great Britain, 7 March). Only here could a house become “affordable” the moment you attach a season ticket priced like a minor surgical procedure. It’s the sort of logic that would make sense only to someone who has never attempted either.
We’ve quietly accepted that the solution to unaffordable housing is … distance. Not building homes, not reforming planning, just encouraging people to live far enough away that the numbers look respectable on a spreadsheet. The towns newly crowned as “affordable” are simply the latest recipients of metropolitan overflow, rewarded with more commuters and none of the infrastructure. Continue reading...
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