Housing crisis ..with comments

I've just read an article from the BBC which states that the current housing crisis affects an estimated 8.4 million people in England.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49787913

Half the comments under the article (do the BBC now allow comments again ?) were stating that high immigration numbers are the main driver of this crisis. I did see one comment on the other side of the argument stating that this was due to right-wing websites linking to the article. Hopefully I don't fall under that category 😄

Anyway the link between immigration and housing is a pretty obvious one to make. How can such high levels of immigration not affect housing?

I'm really hoping that the overwhelming number of comments stating this simple reality will force people at the BBC and in other such sectors to at least begin to acknowledge that this is a genuine part of the explanation. And not just brush it off as racism or ignorance.

Personally I used to think that the "liberal elites" were deliberately doing this to the country to some extent. After all;

How can someone not understand that hundreds of thousands of extra people each year requires lots of extra housing capacity?

However, I've slowly began to realise that they've just never really thought about the issue in real practical terms that much. And when they're confronted with someone attempting to make the argument their ideological belief that anyone discussing the issue is racist means they immediately shut off and refuse to hear the argument.

Not too long ago I was talking to someone who was campaigning locally for the Labour Party. I remember trying to get them to acknowledge that the levels of immigration are really big, whatever your political views about it and however you choose to measure it. Not necessarily to convince him that immigration should be cut - which is of course my view - but just to get him to acknowledge that more people means more need for housing and services. However, it was almost impossible to get him to accept this. It was like I was saying something incredibly rude and horrible.

I suppose it's much easier to have a grasp of this reality if you have direct experience of it. If you can't get on the housing ladder. Or can't afford the rent. Or if you're stuck in overcrowded housing, or still living with parents. Or even worse actually homeless.

If you haven't experienced this firsthand you may just not realise that it's an issue. So it's a kind of ignorance on the part of the people constantly badmouthing the working classes as dreadful racists. Hopefully with articles like this appearing it will help those people see there's a genuine problem to be reckoned with. They're much more likely to take it from a BBC article than from a person they immediately assume is a racist. Though again, it's only really the comments that link it to immigration.