Our Word, Really?
Apparently certain rental properties in this country are not up to standard:
It started when we moved into a housing association flat on the Eastfields estate in Mitcham, south London, in 2018: my father, my two sisters, aged 17 and 20, and 19-year-old me. Before that, we were in temporary accommodation: a half-converted garage that had mould and damp on the walls and a bathroom the size of a cupboard. We had been there since 2016, waiting to get a permanent council property, but the new place was no better. The carpets and wallpaper were decades old. There were cockroaches, flies and woodlice. The mouse infestation in the kitchen was so bad, we didn’t want to use it. The glass patio doors were broken, so the place was freezing. We had lights that filled with water whenever it rained, especially in the bathroom, which had no windows. It wasn’t just us; the whole Eastfields estate was dilapidated, but despite residents complaining to Clarion, the housing association, nothing seemed to get fixed.
Our Word, that is bad. We can all think - should think - that something should be done about that. But the important part there:
Clarion, the housing association
As a non-profit distributing housing association, Clarion is subject to the Regulator of Social Housing's regulatory regime. The Regulator of Social Housing sets standards that social landlords are expected to meet. The Regulator focuses on economic regulation and will expect landlords to meet expectations on governance, financial viability, rent setting and value for money.
So, a bureaucracy, subject to bureaucratic regulation but not to market pressures, provides a lousy service, does it? Colour us very shocked indeed.
We can - should - all do something about that as well. Expand the private, not social, rental sector so that landlords are indeed subject to market pressures. Obviously.
As ever it’s entirely possible to make a case against private profit but such cases always do come up against that uncomfortable reality of what happens in the absence of private profit. As Joan Robinson pointed out the only thing worse than being exploited by a capitalist is not being exploited by a capitalist.