'Feed the Rich' policy stokes housing crisis

We’re short of homes again! One of the consistent themes that has preoccupied the Nationalist Party Mec Vannin is homelessness and the perpetual failure of successive Isle of Man governments to address the question of affordable homes and also increased social housing.

Even those that do own a modest home or rent social housing face steep rates or rent rises so the government’s preoccupation with cosying up to the wealthy can continue.

It preoccupied militant nationalists in the 1970s in the underground movements Fo Halloo and Irree Magh. It reappeared in the late 1980s with the FSFO campaign when the government ‘feed the rich’ policy threatened not just homelessness but cultural subordination.

All through these times the voice of constitutional Nationalism spoke out but even as recently as a decade and a half ago nothing had really changed. Promises since remain unfulfilled:

“Housing Shortage

As land and subsequent housing values become entangled with social values, the best housing appears to be that kept away from the hoipolloi. Ever spiralling house prices have ensured that none but the already comfortably off can afford to buy a house in the grotesquely inflated Manx housing market.

The construction of affordable homes for the person of ordinary means seems to defeat government and its masters in the construction industry permanently. After all no construction company wants to build six starter homes if the same piece of land can be used to build one posh manor house. "Exclusive" developments of luxury homes are advertised everywhere, and exclusive is how both the builders and many of the neighbours want them to remain.

It is perfectly possible, with sufficient government support, to build affordable housing but the economic cleansing in which both construction companies and government conspire is exacerbating the Manx housing crisis.

As the builders concentrate on providing expensive homes the rich have more choice than ever before, just as the poor are discovering that there is nowhere to turn. The shortfall is blamed by the developers on the lack of suitable land. In reality the development industry itself appears to be one of the principal culprits. Just a handful control much of the Island's potential building land and sit happily on their assets in order to increase the value of the homes they sell. They have little incentive to build now if they can ensure that prices continue to boom. They have no incentive whatsoever to solve the underlying crisis by building small cheap homes rather than large expensive ones.

There are plenty of solid arguments for fighting development encroaching into our ever diminishing countryside, keeping new development as compact as possible, regenerating run-down town areas and using brownfield land before building in the countryside. Good urban design cuts crime, encourages social integration and reduces inequality. But good urban design is the enemy of the development companies. Building on greenfield land is far cheaper than clearing existing sites and, if the land was bought at agricultural prices, far more profitable.

What problems of this kind suggest is that housing provision simply cannot be left to the market. The first measure it must take is to use planning law to hold down the cost of land. Development land reaches the value of the most lucrative use to which it can be put. If land is zoned only, or largely for, affordable housing, then its price falls accordingly. This zoning would have to be accompanied by a time limit, to prevent developers from sitting on it pending a change of policy.

There is no room for second and third homes, or property investment portfolios, where others have none.” (Yn Pabyr Seyr January 2005).

Now again with over 700 people needing a home of their own things are no better.

This is a government that puts the interest of every group ahead of the people who elect it.

What sort of government cannot ensure all its people don’t starve, freeze or are homeless. Throw them out at the next election!

Image: Fo Halloo produced newspaper citing a political bete-noire from another age are they any different now?

The publications were a hot item in the 1970s. However despite the focus the media have on militancy whenever ‘nationalism is mentioned very little if any news reports, images etc exist online from either that period or the later FSFO campaign. It’s as if such nasty reminders of reality need to be shielded from us!

Bernard Moffatt

Manx Nationalist