main idea is rather simple: take more power from the people and push that power to the chosen ones, the bureaucrats like Dorling, Never mind that the current situation is precisely the result of a century of Dorlings making the choices for the people, Like in the Soviet Union, the ideal Dorlin society is the one without unemployment: everybody works and than people eat though their representatives, Well, this is a deeply enraging book, I recommend looking at pictures of happy dogs in order to promote calm after finishing it, Housing is an especially vexed issue for me, as I used to work in local government in the time BC Before Crisis amp Before Coalition.
I had access to a lot of housing data and worked on issues relating to new housing development, as well as having a wise colleague who taught me huge amounts about the operation of the housing system.
Prior to the crisis, it was clear that there were major problems with housing in the UK, Apart from anything else, I was living in a slummy shared rental managed by an actively malign rental agency, That said, my rent waslower than it isyears later, despite now living in another slummy shared rental further out of the centre of the same city.
At least my current rental agents are only passively malign, When the crisis hit, there was massive concern in local government about the sudden cessation of new house building, sometimes quite literally in the middle of construction.
It was clear that a new approach to housing policy was needed to respond to the crisis and the underlying problems which it exacerbated, Then the Coalition got in and every single housing policy they came up with did the opposite of what was needed, My colleagues and I used to read aloud press releases from the Department of Communities and Local Government, asking each other, “Dont they realise what will happen” If Eric Pickles et al did realise, they did not care about the homelessness, housing insecurity, and affordability crises they were encouraging.
Moreover, Mr. Pickles department cut all funding for my colleagues and I, so we were made redundant en masse, I took refuge in postgraduate education and began teaching undergraduates about housing, not without a certain bitter tone, My PhD isnt about housing, though, as three years of sustained intense anger would have given me ulcers,
This extensive preamble is to set the context for my reading this book and my lack of neutrality on its subject matter, 'All that is Solid' did not tell me a great deal that I didnt already know and thus I found the initial chapters somewhat slow and meandering.
Personally, I would have structured a book of this kind a bit differently, perhaps based on the housing tenures or the roles played by housing shelter, real estate investment, etc.
Nonetheless, Dorling is a powerful writer and marshals an impressive breadth of information, I wasnt as impressed by All that is Solid as sitelinkInjustice: Why social inequality persists, an earlier book of his which I highly recommend.
The main theme is the same, though, Dorling traces the current UK housing crisis to the growth of inequality since thes, One of his key points, which I have not seen much discussion of elsewhere, is that there are considerably more bedrooms than there are people in the UK.
Thus to speak of a housing shortage conceals the unequal distribution of not just housing but the space within it, He also discusses Britains appallingly feudal distribution of land ownership, which I also teach undergraduates about,
The books themes coalesced more effectively as it went on, culminating in a powerful ending, Dorling takes a pleasingly pragmatic approach to policy solutions, Rather than relying on small scale change cohousing projects and the like, he advocates legal changes that would alter peoples rights to housing and the power balance between landlords amp tenants.
He sees speculative investment in housing as anathema, which should not be so radical a view given the disastrous chaos of the/financial meltdown, Major reform of council tax, perhaps including the introduction of a land value tax, is also suggested, The current council tax system is appallingly regressive, Dorling also deplores the punitive and cruel cuts to benefits, such as the bedroom tax, The most upsetting parts of the book discuss how the Coalition has targeted the most vulnerable, removing their safety net against homelessness, Dorling connects this to increasing death rates amongst the elderly, a correlation I hadnt come across before,
I highly recommend this book and on balance am glad that I read it, as Dorling had a constructive and interesting set of policy approaches to suggest that might improve the situation.
Unfortunately, hell will freeze over before the Coalition would contemplate any of them, We must hope for a more humane and less ideologically blinkered government after the coming election, With housing, I find that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, From my academic and professional experience, I understand why my living situations since I left home have been increasingly expensive yet of consistently poor quality.
I understand why Ive lived with mouldy walls, malfunctioning white goods, overcrowding, astronomical energy bills due to absent insulation, arbitrary fees, insecure tenancies, tiny rooms, and worn Ikea 'furnishings'.
Yet this understanding is the very opposite of consolation, I dont aspire to own a home and rent from the bank rather than an absent landlord, as the only obvious advantage would be nonmagnolia walls.
Dorling makes abundantly clear that the current housing system works in the favour of a rich minority and disadvantages everybody else to a greater or lesser degree.
Contemplating all this for any length of time inclines me to become a hermit and live in a yurt somewhere, Or perhaps move to Scotland, where many of the creative fees contract fees, inventory fees, administrative fees, etc levied by rental agents are now illegal.
Of course, I am one of the lucky ones, I can afford my rent, as its only aboutof my income, Compared to many, I am well housed, Still, its terrible how much the housing situation has deteriorated in past few decades, For my generation, living somewhere with decent insulation, adequate space, and no mould problem is a major ambition, I am two weeks away from my thirtieth birthday and have never rented anywhere that combined those three basic attributes, Such luxury only exists at the most unaffordable end of the rental market, And I dont even live in London, which takes the housing problems of other British urban areas to hyperbolic extremes,
Although I havent said much about the book, if you've waded through my rancor then I can safely recommend it to you, To conclude, here is a quote that sets the current housing crisis neatly in wider context:
What each generation spends most of its money on changes over time.Very disappointed with this, Poor bordering on misleading use of evidence and charts, Was hoping to see a robust argument but came away with opinion on selective statistics, Whilst I totally am on side with the authors politics, the incredible depth of research is often poorly presented in rambling and repetitive chapters, I read another review that the delivery is akin to someone having a rant in a pub and at times it does come across a bit like that.
Our grandparents spent far more on food than on housing our parents often spent more on cars than on housing, We, however, spend more on housing than on anything else, Our children may on average spend more on education unless they can stop that particular bubble from forming, but that is a subject for a future book.
Still, it's a very enlightening book and I'd recommend it for its factual content, A Karl Marx amp Freidrich Engels quote has inspired two book titles this year: Sovietset novel All That is Solid Melts into Air by Darragh McKeon, and this exposé of the British housing crisis.
The problem is not a dearth of housing, Dorling notes, but the inefficient distribution of that housing usually due to wealth inequality, There are plenty of properties to go around, yet squatting and homelessness remain perpetual problems, In addition, Britain has some of Europes smallest newbuild houses, with noticeably tiny rooms, and this can have a surprisingly major psychological effect on inhabitants.
Nor does it help that council tax is heavily weighted against those in modest dwellings, and that the socalled “bedroom tax” penalizes those on welfare benefits if they are found to have a spare room.
“When rents are as high as they are in Britain today, most people who rent simply have to choose the least bad home they are offered.
” That quote certainly struck a chord for me for over six years now, my husband and I have been stuck in a vicious cycle of renting nonideal properties that still end up costing nearly above our means.
Ironically, “those who are most adversely affected by housing policy believe they have little power to alter politics, And usually they are right, ” Im not a citizen, so I cant vote my husband can and does vote, but his dissenting opinion has little bearing on local elections dominated by the Conservative Party.
“Housing should be about the long term, about provision, not profit, ” Amen! Among the solutions Dorling suggests are the following: increased wages, rent control, incremental council tax bands all the way
up to Z, the decriminalization of squatting, and second homes being taxed at a much higher rate.
But all of these practical changes imply a much greater societal shift: a change of heart and of focus for a government that is currently as far as we can tell by and for the rich.
This is a very important book, one I hope will be influential among academics and lawmakers, Some of the details of economics and demographics passed me by, which is why I skimmed it rather than reading the whole thing Owen Hatherley, reviewing the book in the Guardian, calls it an “avalanche of graphs, statistics and stories of housing misery”, but I wholeheartedly agree with the message and laud Dorlings courage and clarity.
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