UK housing crisis

I look at the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the construction industry in London, enthusing about the shutdown of sites, and hoping that the entire bloated industry will collapse – not only because its developments are either unnecessary or overpriced, or both, but also because the entire industry is so environmentally ruinous. My critique is also part of a wider analysis of the huge drop in emissions since the lockdown began, in which massively reduced car use has played a major part, although this progress will be rapidly undone without a renewed commitment to a permanent reduction in emissions as countries begin to try to ease their way out of lockdown.

My new article about the impact of the coronavirus, with a particular focus on rental problems, both in a domestic context, in which furloughed workers, and those suddenly laid off, are facing unprecedented problems paying their rent, but have received no help from the government, and, in a business context, with numerous businesses, including restaurants and pubs, calling for rents to be suspended to prevent them from going under.

Today I’m marking the eighth anniversary of when I set out on my bike, with my camera, to take photos in all of London’s 120 postcodes. Eight years later, I haven’t stopped, and, in the last seven weeks, I’ve been seeing the capital through new eyes during the unprecedented coronavirus lockdown.

An interview about my activism — involving Stonehenge and the Battle of the Beanfield, Guantánamo, the housing ‘regeneration’ industry in the UK, and the currently unfolding environmental crisis — as published in Gonzo Weekly and International Times, based on questions from the publisher and activist Alan Dearling.

In my latest article looking at the drastically changed coronavirus world, I flag up the dangers of the massive shift from employment to unemployment, call for rents to be written off for the duration of the crisis, and refer to a study in the journal Science to demonstrate that we need to be thinking about living with the coronavirus for years, and not just a few more months of lockdown.

100 days since the existence of the coronavirus was first announced to the world, I look at some of the many ways in which it has changed life forever – primarily by establishing that our societies’ obsession with corporate profits above all else has now been revealed as empty and worthless, when what truly matters is our health, and those who look after us. I also look at some of the many ways in which our economies, and our economic priorities, will need to change.

My latest thoughts on the coronavirus crisis, looking specifically at how it must change the way we operate forever – not only via the extinction of the cruise ship industry and the acceptance of a much-reduced airline industry, but also through a complete re-evaluation of capitalism and our own appetites. Some of this follows on from the demands of Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion, but the virus has, in an unprecedented manner, thrown almost everything we thought was certain into doubt, presenting unparalleled opportunities for a new future in which we put the needs of the people and the planet before profit.

A three-in-one article, launching the new song, ‘Affordable’, about the housing crisis, by The Four Fathers, plus a review of the campaign to save the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, one year since the trees were all cut down by contractors working on behalf of Lewisham Council and Peabody – and some photos of protestors’ posters put up on the hoardings around the garden last week to mark the anniversary.

Marking 1,000 days since I began posting a photo a day on Facebook, on a page entitled, ‘The State of London’, drawing from what is now a nearly eight-year archive of photos taken on bike rides around London’s 120 postcodes, in which I record the latest upheavals and changes in the life of this great city, particularly involving the depredations of the housing development industry, the city’s shopfronts and neighbourhoods, its nature, via rivers, canals, trees, parks and hills, and its more ephemeral aspects as reflected in the changing weather and the seasons.

My condemnation of Priti Patel’s disgraceful attack on Britain’s Gypsy and traveller community, in which she is calling for new powers for the police to be able to immediately confiscate the vehicle of “anyone whom they suspect to be trespassing on land with the purpose of residing on it” – a policy change that the police themselves don’t even want, as they recognise that the main problem is the lack of site provision, a requirement that was repealed by the Tories in 1994. I urge all decent people to rise up against this foul government, and also to be aware of where a far-right drift in government can lead.