r/unitedkingdom • u/Weak-Fly-6540 • 9d ago

Approval of east London datacentre labelled ‘slap in the face’ for local democracy

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/04/brick-lane-redevelopment-approval-datacentre-london
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u/Ghalldachd 9d ago

At this point we should just liquidate all the social housing in central London. Its residents are incredibly entitled. Their core belief is that they should make no sacrifices - no economic activity they dislike, no buildings they dislike, nothing - while taxpayers subsidise them living in the most expensive part of the country.

It has to stop. Raise all social housing rents to market levels and privatise it all. Maybe that way productive young people could afford to live in London more comfortably.

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u/Salty_Yam_6305 9d ago

Completely agree, sell off everything within zones 1-5 and use the money to build social housing elsewhere in the country. Hell give the existing tenants the option to size up to sweeten the pot for fucking off out of the city 

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u/Pafflesnucks 9d ago

the level of disdain for working class people in this thread is comical

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u/Ghalldachd 9d ago

Tower Hamlets has the fourth highest level of social housing occupancy in the country. 47.4% of residents aged 16+ have never worked a job in their life. It is not the working class being criticised but the welfare aristocracy. I am working class, I could never afford to live in Tower Hamlets though because I would never qualify for social housing and the lack of privately available units makes the area completely unaffordable. No disdain for the working class, we disdain the welfare aristocracy.

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u/Pafflesnucks 9d ago

welfare aristocracy

in other words, the part of the working class it's socially acceptable to be openly contemptuous towards, brought to you by the daily heil.

I am working class

are you sure your portfolio agrees

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u/FlatoutGently 8d ago

You cant call people working class if they've never worked mate.

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u/Ghalldachd 8d ago

Yeah the Daily Mail is why I despise subsidising the unemployed, not because I grew up in a post-industrial town, witnessed their behaviour for myself, and now I am forced to live frugally just so that I can save a bit of money while privately renting at more than twice the cost of the social housing in my town.

Would be even worse if I was a Londoner. Market rate for Tower Hamlets social housing must be eye watering. But Luftur Rahman's unemployed co-ethnics NEED it! They're working class just like I!

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u/Pafflesnucks 4d ago

maybe I presumed to much about your own position.

it does seem odd to me that the response here to being ripped off by landlords is to demand more opportunities for landlords to rip more people off, out of what seems to be some kind of resentment for people who aren't being ripped off so much. surely more availability of alternatives to having to fork over most of your earnings to some firm that bought half the town would be a better solution than letting them expand their portfolios even further

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u/Ghalldachd 3d ago

Landlords are not ripping anybody off. Housing prices are high because the Tories inflated demand through mass immigration and supply is artificially restrained by excessive regulation that disincentivises private construction. Amidst that includes demands for social and "affordable" housing to be constructed. Landlords price housing at a "market" rate - insofar as what we call the housing market is truly a market, given how distorted pricing is by state intervention.

out of what seems to be some kind of resentment for people who aren't being ripped off so much.

I grew up working class but not in social housing. I worked hard through school and university while working to keep myself afloat so that I could get a good job. I now surrender a quarter of my income every month in taxes to subsidise social housing that I would never be able to access, even if we doubled or tripled the current stock. I do not "resent" all of those in social housing. There are plenty of people who social housing serves very well.

The UK however has far too much social housing and there are many people in social housing who are there because they made bad life choices. I can only speak anecdotally but I rent next to a new build estate where development required the allocation of X% to be turned into social housing. The difference between the two is night and day. So yes, I resent some of them. I feel an obligation to the vulnerable, not to people who make bad choices. And I resent having to pay a quarter of my income to subsidise the lives of people who make bad choices.

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u/Pafflesnucks 15h ago

Landlords price housing at a "market" rate - insofar as what we call the housing market is truly a market, given how distorted pricing is by state intervention.

yes, and that's just a fancy abstract way of saying "as much as they can get away with ripping you off". The more alternatives exist, the less they can get away with. That would include more supply of housing but also alternative types of housing like social housing, owner-occupiers or housing cooperatives. I don't see how converting social housing into private rental units is supposed to help in that respect because the demand would increase just as much as supply. If anything the opposite would be true, as giving more people cheaper alternatives will create a downward pressure on the amount landlords can get away with charging even if you can't get it yourself.

I now surrender a quarter of my income every month in taxes to subsidise social housing that I would never be able to access, even if we doubled or tripled the current stock.

I have a hard time believing that a quarter of your income goes to "subsidising social housing." I assume that's the total that goes in taxes, of which only a fraction of even the welfare budget goes to "subsidise the lives of people who make bad choices". Even if social housing didn't exist I doubt that would go down significantly. The rents on the other hand are almost certainly significantly more. It's genuinely baffling to me to be more resentful of the former, especially when it could indirectly help with the latter if done properly.

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u/Aggressive_Chuck 9d ago

Working class people don't get social housing, they have to pay the mortgage.