Disfunction and Culpability

Disfunction and Culpability

Housing is broken in the UK and the effects on people who want to own their own home are enormous, so let’s look at some of the reasons why it is in such a bad state.

There is an obvious geographical draw, a south eastern magnet pulling, creating a furious demand for homes within a finite land resource and this power will only be reduced if economic dynamos are relocated, or constructed, in other parts of the country. Whilst acknowledging this factor, with a broad sweep of the hand let’s ignore it and examine areas which can be dealt with outside of the large scale government policy and epic financial investment which will be needed to alleviate the problem. Let’s look at what we can do more immediately.?

Fundamentally there is a problem with the way we build houses and the profligate use of our very limited available land. Developers build houses to maximise profits and, in general, care little for the living functionality, the operations and the cost for buyers. This leads them to build developments, and the houses, in a calamitously inefficient way, often concealing their failures with cynical road naming; Larks Rise, The Willows, Green Meadows.?

Houses have faux design touches tacked on, false accoutrements to give a feeling of a faint historical echo, for example of Georgian times (fake white pillars either side of the front door), or mocking tudor with tacked on timber to add ‘olde worlde charm’.??And all are built from inefficient materials, the absurdity of putting little pieces of baked clay one on top of another, stuck together with hand mixed cement. Or complex roofs of overlapping clay tiles, sealed at the edges with cement, being another. There are, sadly, so many more.?

All these add to the build cost, whilst tricking the buyer into thinking they have a quality product for which they are required to pay a higher price.?

No architect draws these developments, as employing more than a plan drawer would reduce profit margins, so no one scrutinises the available land to intelligently assesses how it can be used best. Or orients the houses to maximise the available sunlight; passive solar gain is rarely considered. Meanwhile, housing estate roads wind like sinuous rills, where blossoming trees used to be, no Xanadu these housing estates, despite their countryside naming pretensions.?

There will probably be a gesture towards ‘affordable housing’ on these developments, which ignores the obvious, that few are truly affordable. Inefficient land use, inefficient building methods and highly efficient profit taking summarise the sad situation.?

Turning from money to humanity, what is the effect on people??

Clinical psychologist Professor Jordan Peterson highlights the deeply embedded mechanism of serotonin production in the human body, released with a rise in personal status. Confidence and empowerment rise in line with this chemical, so if a person is low in the dominance hierarchy with associated reduced serotonin, they tend to be more impulsive and emotionally disregulated, they are more dissatisfied and look for anything which will boost them, no matter how adverse their actions.?With a drop in status, they experience negative emotions because of their tenuous position in the dominance hierarchy.?

It is important to note that status is not necessarily achieved by material goods, as the release of serotonin is dependent on personal status, therefore a person can have great status but not great wealth. It is as if confidence creates confidence and empowerment, but all are difficult to achieve if you are forced to live and work in unfulfilling circumstances, or have no home or job. Is this why ex-offending employees of Timpson are amongst their most trusted employees, having been lost they have been given the means to find their way.?

This is backed up by a 2019 study which found that 50% of HMP Parc prisoners had been exposed to a very high level of childhood adversity. For thirty years, psychiatrist and psychotherapist Gwen Adshead worked with violent offenders and observed that most are keen to learn from their mistakes, get themselves into a stable position and enjoy the things that others enjoy, ‘Which is a roof over their heads, someone to love and something useful to do.’?

There is a Jewish phrase tikkum olam, which is the responsibility that we all bear not only for our own moral and material welfare, but also for the welfare of our society. It is a responsibility to both repair and enhance our world. We also need to ensure that society offers the opportunity for people to grow within it, to establish lives on firm foundations, build families from a stable base and raise personal status; since with a rise in personal status comes greater personal esteem and a reduction in the chances of a descent into chaos. Structure establishes order.?

Building houses that are unobtainable or unsuitable prevents people from building their lives, or indeed rebuilding them. Building houses that are profligate in land use and expensive to run does not contribute to the construction of a well ordered society, it is a failure.?

Fortunately, we know how to build well, how develop with intelligence, how to use modern methods of construction to reduce costs and minimise waste. All we need is the will to impose discipline on a system that requires houses to be accessible to the many and from which homes can be made and stable lives established.

Because if you value pastiche and profit above all else then you act in opposition to tikkum olam.