standard-a polite euphemism for slums. Over one mittion families live in dwellings "unfit for human built in the public sector and 226,068 were built by private bullders. By 1973 only 113,547 publie the middle ciass. The average price for a new house has gone up from £5,051 in 1970 to E8,683 in and 1973-has placed home ownership beyond the means of most workers and large sections of the middle class. At 11 percent interest, the monthly repayments on a E10,000 house over a period of In October this year 50,000 houses built for private sale stood empty. Thay were stuck on the mar ket because people could not afford to buy them. The building firms have enough bricks stockpiled on's population are living more than 1% persons to a room-an increase of one per cent since 1966 Over 550,000 Londoners have no fixed bath, 440,061 have no hot water supply and 529,070 have on the market. At the same time that house building is declining, interest rates rocket and the price of land zooms sky high. The median price per acre of land in Inner London went up by 74 per cent The aim of this Red Weekly "Special" is to discuss what steps the working class movement can take In 1971 3.1 million or 18.2 per cent of the dwellings in England and Wales were declared sub.
habitation' Each year more houses fall into decay and begin to crumble apert. In 1968 199,787 houses were sector houses had been built and the private builders only constructed 190,571..
As local authorities have to fork out nearly one third of their revenue in interest rates more cuts are inevitable in the public sector. Home ownership is becoming impossible for most working class people and for large sections of 1973. The price of old houses went up even faster, from E4,946 to E10,043.
The astronomical rise in interest rates-they shot up from 6 per cent to 11 per cent between 1971 25 years total E99 a month.
to build another 55,000 homes. Yet people remain homeless and building workers because private enterprise cannot make enough profit by building homes.
in London the housing situation is horrifying. The 1971 census shows that five per cent of Lond an outside WC. In Greater London alone the number of empty houses stood at 99,730, mainly dwellings for sale between 1971 and 1972.
For millions of people the housing crisis has meant misery, ill health, discomfort and penury. Unless the working class fights for its own solution to the housing crisis the situation will get Worse. now to impose its own solution to the crisis in housing.
chem upstairs in the cold. One is 14 are unemployed them had to say:
the board - they just get moved around."
• Housing Action Committee member on the Salford housing policy.
KEE That's how areas like Salford's Lower Broughton have been described. One third of Salford's housing has been officially condemned as 'unfit for human habitation' , as was Lower Broughton almost 10 years ago. Yet 800 families still have to live there!
Last week BBC TV's "Man Alive' programme gave the Lower Broughton residents a chance to speak out. This is what some of
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'My sons have to sleep with me: two at the bottom and one at the top with me. They sleep there to keep warm at night time. I can't leave bed and worry that my children might be eaten alive by rats.'