alt Hacker NewsThere are two reasons why the UK does not have affordable housing:
1) land hoarded by the feudal aristocracy (parasites descended from thugs), who do not pay property taxes because there are effectively none (wouldn't want Chuck von Battenberg-Saxe-Coburg und Gotha to pay taxes, now, would we?). Most people in the UK do not own the land under their lodging due to the feudal practice of leasehold, and have to pay rent on it and are constrained from doing even essential maintenance like fire safety without the permission of the freeholder.
2) NIMBYs, generally older and Tory, who vote to block construction and are pandered to by pretty much every major party
Granted, England has twice the population density of Japan, but Tokyo somehow manages to have affordable housing.
> England has twice the population density of Japan, but Tokyo somehow manages to have affordable housing.
The UK has a lower population density, and Britain (roughly the same size) a much lower density than Honshu - and England is about the same as Honshu.
> land hoarded by the feudal aristocracy (parasites descended from thugs), who do not pay property taxes because there are effectively none
Also other rich people.
> Most people in the UK do not own the land under their lodging due to the feudal practice of leasehold
Not most. its 19% of dwellings, and as they tend to be smaller households a smaller proportion of people live in them https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/leasehold-dwellings...
> NIMBYs, generally older and Tory
Mostly Tory? The affluent mostly vote Labour now.