At the last London Mayoral elections (2012) the formidable independent candidate Siobhan Benita made big efforts to get the issue the prominence that it warrants.
Subsequently, probably more as a result of where we are in the economic cycle more housing has been built in London- much of this though is expensive, family un-friendly and small.
I was interested to learn that the stock of public housing is now so low (in many boroughs the proportion of public housing has dropped by around 50% in 20 years) and that for many people rent is taking over half of their income - it's an issue that created a big demonstration against Mayor Boris Johnson's lack-lustre performance .
Looking around me in Ealing the new homes being provided are a mixture of small private apartments with no outside space and expensive retro homes that look like existing stock but are feature laden with minimal outside space.
Councils of all political persuasions appear to delight in the policy of demolishing and replaced with more smaller accommodation, sadly in Ealing it has been revealed that the Labour council leader has both a private house and public housing which can not be right.
Hopefully housing will not be overlooked in the Election 2015 and we'll see better and more affordable homes for all who need them - let's face it a decent place to live is a key issue for us all.
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| New (expensive) homes made to look like old ones in Ealing |
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| Another example in the borough |
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