UK PM pledges to fight poverty amid historic home crisis
British Prime Minister David Cameron pledges to launch a ‘blitz’ on poverty amid the UK’s burgeoning housing crisis not seen since the 1960s.
The PM promised that “brutal high-rise towers” and “bleak” housing will be torn down in an effort to tackle drug abuse and gang culture.
Nearly a hundred of the UK’s worst sink estates could be bulldozed to make way for better homes as part of the promised “blitz,” according to the Guardian.
Details of the scheme will be set out in a keynote speech delivered by Cameron on Monday, in which he will also outline plans to double government funding for relationship counseling for troubled families and relaunch a coalition proposal to issue vouchers for parenting classes.
In an article for the Sunday Times, Cameron wrote, “Within these so-called sink estates, behind front doors, families build warm and welcoming homes. But step outside in the worst estates and you’re confronted by concrete slabs dropped from on high, brutal high-rise towers and dark alleyways that are a gift to criminals and drug dealers.”
The government will inject £140 million to rehouse occupants and tear up planning rules to speed up the process. Tenants and homeowners will be given binding guarantees that their right to a home is protected.
Cameron’s pledge comes amid a worsening housing crisis in the country where more than half of the people living in private rented accommodation say they are struggling to pay for it.
A YouGov poll of more than 4,500 people for housing charity Shelter shows that 53% were finding it hard to pay their rent, and a further 3% were falling behind on payments.
The survey reveals that 15% of private renters are worried about paying their rent this month and that nearly a third, 32%, have had to cut back on winter essentials such as heating or clothing to meet their financial obligations.
The figures highlight the extent to which the housing crisis is gripping the private rental sector. Unable to afford homes of their own, tenants are being hit by rising rents as landlords take advantage of the acute shortage of housing.
The number of households in private rented accommodation is now similar to that seen in the 1960s, when England’s housing crisis triggered a furore that led to Shelter’s creation.
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