Two stories today point out in no uncertain terms the madness that reigns in the UK housing market. While, according to the Nationwide Building Society, house prices have "jumped" upwards by 1.3%, Stoke-On-Trent City council is desperately selling off empty houses for £1 each. With 5,000 empty houses and the city literally dying on its feet, the Council feels it has no choice since it simply cannot afford to look after these properties while families are desperate for somewhere to live. These two stories illustrate several different points about the upside-down topsy-turvey world that is the British housing market. The most obvious is the north-south divide, with the south continuing to do quite well out of the institutionalised unfairness of the British economy while the north, forgotten and unregarded, continues to sink into oblivion. The second point is that estate agents, desperate for "the good old days" when they could sell houses at unrealistic prices to people who couldn't afford them, are lying through their teeth - putting up prices in their window displays but failing to sell any of them. But the most telling point is how the London housing market, which has continued to rise on the back of corporate and political corruption, is warping the rest of the market. This simple fact also illustrates well the strategy of the Tory party which consists of turning London into a bunker for the rich, pulling up the drawbridge and turning their backs on the rest of the country. This Tory government has simply become the town council for the capital, determined to protect the privileged position of the financial quarter which, for them, is the only industry that counts.
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