Homes not Hovels

“A house may be large or small; as long as the surrounding houses are equally small it satisfies all social demands for a dwelling. But if a palace arises besides the little house, the little house shrinks into a hut. The little house now shows that its owner has only very slight or no demands to make; and however high it may shoot up in the course of civilisation, if the neighbouring palace grows to an equal or even greater extent, the dweller in the relatively small house will feel more and more uncomfortable, dissatisfied and cramped within its four walls.” Marx, (Wage Labour and Capital)

The problem of securing a roof over one’s head is one of the greatest uncertainties for most working people, subject as they are to the vicissitudes of the capitalist business cycles. Those who have sufficient savings for a down payment on a home stand to lose it during the depressions. Renting tenants unable to pay are mercilessly evicted. The need for homes is never satisfied, precisely because the profit system bars the way.

Assuredly it is urgent to make a change here – a change to production for use, to rational planning. The housing shortage is becoming more and more acute with no real relief in sight. The mounting cost of living and the shrinkage in housing are the twin burdens that weigh most heavily upon the mass of the people. And they can lead to the most serious upheavals. We are not speaking about some developing country where millions of suffering human beings must seek shelter among urban slums and shanty towns. We are speaking about one of the richest countries in the world. In the UK skills are available and so are the raw materials. Technology has made new and great strides. And yet, there is exist a housing shortage where young no longer believe they can get on the first rung of ownership. Nor do people believe they can have the security of long-term rentals. The housing crisis is not a new phenomenon in Britain.

Decent housing, as well as the problem of other necessities of life, is indissolubly linked with the social and economic conditions of the working class. Nowhere in the world can capitalism point to having provided adequate housing for the people. Nevertheless, in contrast to the hovels of the poor, we have the luxurious palaces and mansions of the rich in their gated communities. To escape the pollution and acquire clean fresh air many of the rich own their country estates far from the prying eyes of the poor.  On the one hand, limitless luxury and affluence – on the other, want and misery. The housing problem, as well as all other social problems, reflects the distinction of class, of economic position, of wealth and poverty. As we all know, in a system whose production is governed exclusively by the profit motive, the needs of the people must of necessity be left utterly disregarded. Production for profit and peoples’ needs constitute two opposite poles. That housing is one of the basic needs of people nobody denies; and yet every housing programme and project has been stymied by the profit motive and by the attitude and actions of the government and city councils, and by the conduct of the mortgage bankers, the real estate sharks, all the way down to the building contractors. Why is there a housing crisis? How can there be a housing shortage with so many houses left empty and unused? Why, with stockpiles of bricks, cement, timber, and roof-tiles are houses not being built in sufficient quantity? Why, after centuries of progress in construction and building technology and the passing of masses of housing legislation by successive governments do poor dwellings continue to be built and unhealthy, uninhabitable older buildings still stand? The lesson is inescapable. The housing market is so irrational and unplanned that even those who own and control the industry cannot now make a profit without the state helping them out. Subsidies, tax-relief and other forms of government inducements are all intended to make the housing market profitable enough for capitalists to invest in.

The capitalist profit system itself remains the greatest obstacle in the way of adequate housing for the people, just as it stands in the way of satisfying all the other peoples’ needs. Hence our determination to fight for the socialist solution. Such a system would put an end to speculative land owners, to the land-owners and rent-gougers, not to mention the profit hungry mortgage brokers and financiers. Profit returns would no longer enter into calculations for home building. Houses are not built to alleviate the very real problem of a housing shortage. They are built solely in order that the speculator and the house builder can squeeze the last penny-worth of profit out of a small site. Some rooms are so small as to be unusable for the routines of nuclear family life and fences “protect” tiny, private patches of lawn. On the contrary, the needs of the people would be the highest concern. Society will apply to the fullest extent new building materials and more efficient construction methods. Healthy and comfortable homes would be the rule.

The working-class should not delude themselves by thinking that there is anything basically different between rented and mortgaged accommodation for the quality and quantity of both types are, in the end, determined by the very same market. Both depend on the conditions under which those with money, land and materials are prepared to lend, invest or build in the housing market. Those with capital to invest do not mind whether it is used to build council houses or houses in the private sector; they participate in the housing market to make a profit. The market determines what is available and at what price — which means that the capitalist class gets the housing they want and profits come before the housing needs of the community.

Engels, writing in the nineteenth century, wrote of the housing crisis in these terms:

“The so-called housing shortage which plays such a great role in the press nowadays, does not consist in the fact that the working-class generally lives in bad, overcrowded and unhealthy dwelling. This shortage is not something peculiar to the present, it is not even one of the sufferings peculiar to the modern proletariat in contradistinction to all earlier oppressed classes. On the contrary all oppressed classes in all periods suffered rather uniformly from it. To put an end to this housing shortage there is only one means: to abolish altogether the exploitation and oppression of the working class by the ruling class . . . The housing shortage from which the working class suffers today is one of the many evils which result from present-day capitalist production.”

The problem remains the same today as it did for Engels