At one end of the UK’s crazy housing market, Persimmon and other national and international property developers are encouraged by government policy to grab British land for huge private gain (£66k profit on every home. How builder made £1bn, 27 February). At the other end there are no policies whatsoever in place at government or local authority level to provide truly affordable homes for rent for the 79,880 homeless families in temporary accommodation. Their number rose by 65% from 2010 while Persimmon’s profit tripled from 2013. The condition of the temporary homes is often a disgrace. People can be forced to move several times over 10 years of homelessness, sometimes via a homeless hostel, while landlords either default on their mortgage or take their profit from a speculative buy to let. Forced moves disrupt the education of more than 120,000 children. These low-income families are at the mercy of landlords, who can evict without reason, and of councils, who can compel them to accept an offer of permanent housing in a private tenancy at rents they cannot afford. It is more of a housing emergency than a housing crisis.
Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty
• The introduction of a national index of food insecurity may be “a massive step forward” but why has it taken so long (UK to measure hunger in low-income families, 27 February)? More to the point, when will the government take action to lift struggling families out of poverty? How many more studies do we need before the fact that 4 million children live in households that can’t afford decent food is treated as an emergency? Why are the concerns of trade unionists over low pay and job security, which keep even working parents in poverty, ignored? If ministers ventured outside the Westminster bubble once in a while, or had actually listened to the “several food poverty charities”, we might have seen some action long before now. How many more letters like this will I have to write while we have a government that promotes austerity for the many not the privileged few?
Karen Barratt
Winchester
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