Housing Expert On How We Lost Control | Aaron Bastani Meets Peter Apps

We live in times of crisis. But perhaps none of the crises affect so many people in the here and now, as the housing crisis. Solving it could provide the skeleton key to unlocking so many of society’s problems. Despite this, decades of successive governments in the UK have failed to bring housing under control. The social contract which told us that if we worked hard all our lives, we can own a home and be secure in retirement, has been completely broken. To discuss the crisis in Britain and beyond, Aaron Bastani sat down with Peter Apps. He is an award-winning journalist who knows the field of housing in Britain better than almost anyone. He wrote an article about the threat of flammable cladding a month before Grenfell caught fire. How has housing policy shaped Britain in the last 50 years? Who did more to damage the housing system, Labour or the Tories? Is more housing supply always the solution? And why is no one talking about the crisis facing our ageing population, one million of whom will be in housing insecurity and poverty by 2030? 00:00 Intro 02:58 Why Is Housing So Unaffordable? 11:08 How Private Landlords Impact Society 14:09 What Is the Worst Kind of Landlord? 16:56 The Rise of Commercial Landlords & Asset Managers 19:44 The Best City or the Worst City: How Has London Changed in 35 Years? 26:23 How Has Immigration Affected House Prices? 29:57 The Truth About HMOs 34:15 1988 Housing Act: Margaret Thatcher's Housing Legacy 38:09 Thatcher, Social Housing & Right to Buy 44:52 Housing Benefit Versus Social Housing 52:18 Wasted Years of Low Inflation Rates 54:43 Why Markets Love Social Housing 56:54 Triage: Should Social Housing Be for Everyone? 1:01:37 Socialism Needs Mass Buy In 1:04:09 New Labour: Tearing Down the Council Estates 1:09:28 The Extraordinary Story of the Heygate Estate 1:14:36 Gentrification & the Destruction of Communities 1:21:32 Supply and Demand-side Solutions 1:27:48 Starmer's Failures on Housing 1:29:11 Help to Buy and Fake Growth 1:31:55 Fugazi: Matthew McConaughey in The Big Short 1:34:12 The Triple Lock on Pensions 1:35:05 The Catastrophe Looming for Older Renters 1:38:56 The Potential of Communal Living 1:41:39 Millions of Pensioners Driven into Poverty 1:46:56 Final Thoughts on Triple Lock Buy 'Homesick' by Peter Apps here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/home... Subscribe to the Downstream newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters/t... Support our work: http://novara.media/support Buy Novara Media merch: https://shop.novaramedia.com/