#MOVETHECAPITAL
IT'S TIME THE
GOVERNMENT
MOVED HOUSE
A home is a birth right, yet across the globe there is a housing crisis. It affects developing countries as it does developed and is a result of complex social/economic factors, but clearly demonstrates that we are doing something wrong and need to change.
In Britain the popular debate focuses on a perceived housing shortage, but where are all these people who need a home? Homelessness is a problem and multigenerational / shared occupancy dwelling is common place, but the problem is ever increasing house prices and rates of rental.
There is a housing shortage in the South, particularly emanating from London. Looking at house building figures we see a massive unbalance between the number of new homes in the South compared to the North. While London continues to sprawl Northern post industrial cities while vibrant and progressive, possess swathes of development opportunities but lack sufficient economic stimulation.
Country homes and land are of course as equally exposed to the same speculative capital investment market forces that are magnifying the problem. Prior to 1970 house prices roughly tracked inflation, it is only following banking deregulation that property became a means of creating money, fuelled by easy access to cheap loans and we arrive at the problems of today. While ever the value and costs associated with building remain hidden the market will continue to exploit desire fed speculative valuation.
IT'S TIME THE
GOVERNMENT
MOVED HOUSE
A home is a birth right, yet across the globe there is a housing crisis. It affects developing countries as it does developed and is a result of complex social/economic factors, but clearly demonstrates that we are doing something wrong and need to change.
In Britain the popular debate focuses on a perceived housing shortage, but where are all these people who need a home? Homelessness is a problem and multigenerational / shared occupancy dwelling is common place, but the problem is ever increasing house prices and rates of rental.
There is a housing shortage in the South, particularly emanating from London. Looking at house building figures we see a massive unbalance between the number of new homes in the South compared to the North. While London continues to sprawl Northern post industrial cities while vibrant and progressive, possess swathes of development opportunities but lack sufficient economic stimulation.
Country homes and land are of course as equally exposed to the same speculative capital investment market forces that are magnifying the problem. Prior to 1970 house prices roughly tracked inflation, it is only following banking deregulation that property became a means of creating money, fuelled by easy access to cheap loans and we arrive at the problems of today. While ever the value and costs associated with building remain hidden the market will continue to exploit desire fed speculative valuation.
MOVE THE GOVERNMENT // RELOCATE THE CAPITAL
Downing street becomes social housing, old Parliament a Tourist attraction and Public Arts centre. The multiplicity of civil service, administrative, military and quango residences are converted to publicly owned residential housing; allowing central London to breathe and live.
London is big enough to look after herself, she is the economic centre of the country, a global financial centre and bastion of the arts. However future economic prosperity is MADE IN BRITAIN.
Saving the tax payer money, as with the BBC move to Manchester relocating Governance becomes an opportunity to generate income and sustain a revived reform and localisation of political power. The future capital is no-longer a City it is a nexus, located in Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham and York- connected by high speed rail and internet. A British Hub Airport is constructed between Derby and Birmingham.
Localised offices provide opportunity for Public realm political organisation and activism while a new Parliament of Great Britain allows a pioneering World leading exploration of civic organisation.
Downing street becomes social housing, old Parliament a Tourist attraction and Public Arts centre. The multiplicity of civil service, administrative, military and quango residences are converted to publicly owned residential housing; allowing central London to breathe and live.
London is big enough to look after herself, she is the economic centre of the country, a global financial centre and bastion of the arts. However future economic prosperity is MADE IN BRITAIN.
Saving the tax payer money, as with the BBC move to Manchester relocating Governance becomes an opportunity to generate income and sustain a revived reform and localisation of political power. The future capital is no-longer a City it is a nexus, located in Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham and York- connected by high speed rail and internet. A British Hub Airport is constructed between Derby and Birmingham.
Localised offices provide opportunity for Public realm political organisation and activism while a new Parliament of Great Britain allows a pioneering World leading exploration of civic organisation.
It is a time for radical solutions, it is imperatively evident in the toothless narrative of Political and Media circuses.
It may at first seem idealistic or utopian, especially for a conservative populace; but looking to our past we see it is an essential and timely intervention and function of the state to relocate. The state is a vehicle for social economic stability and progress.
Colchester, Winchester,York, Canterbury, Lincoln
It may be 800 years since we last re-imagined the Capital, in an un-unified Britain; We see today in the EU, with Scottish independence and concurrently with global trade, communication and capitalism- A simultaneous movement of breaking down existing power bases into ever smaller and effectively managed communities and with ever increasing connectivity, exchange and inter-dependance between each centre. A global network of empowered individuals.
Autonomous localised economies built on diverse multi polar organisation, such as community and co-operative development enabling mass self-built infrastructure. Too few large housing building companies control the market place, regulating supply to maximise profit and producing incredibly limited and unimaginative built fabric because the design organisation insufficiently enables real time decision making and influence of the people it supposedly serves.
#MOVETHECAPITAL
