reply to Baggini

Housing is a controversial issue because it touches on people’s basic instincts for security.

Baggini suggests that the white working classes in Barking and Dagenham can legitimately blame their housing poverty on the arrivals of new economic migrants. They are taken away scarce housing and forcing sons and daughters of East Enders to flee to the Essex suburbs. The Council lives in fear of being labelled ‘racist’ if it considers entitlement to be just and deserving case to prioritise over the needs of more recent housing applications.

There is simply no evidence presented to show this. There are plenty of stories flying around East London, whipped up by the BNP but no definitive statistics or data to prove the case. The business case for the priority principle has not been made.

The shortage in housing has opened up an important debate on how the welfare state wakes up to globalisation. A sensible argument can be made that when a new population arrives in one place (via immigration or internal migration) more attention should be paid to existing residents and what the implications are for them.

Space is a real problem in East London and it’s...