Big Capital: Who Is London For?

Description

Revealing exactly what is causing London's housing crisis - and what can be done London is facing the worst housing crisis in modern times, with knock-on effects for the rest of the UK. Despite the desperate shortage of housing, tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of affordable homes are being pulled down, replaced by luxury apartments aimed at foreign investors. In this ideological war, only market solutions to housing - which is a public good - are considered, which paradoxically makes the situation worse, because the market responds to the needs of global capital rather than ordinary people needing homes to live in. In politically uncertain times, the housing crisis has become a key driver creating and fuelling the inequalities of a divided nation. Anna Minton cuts through the complexities, jargon and spin to give a clear-sighted account of how we got into this mess and how we can get out of it.

Anna Minton is a writer, journalist and Reader in Architecture at the University of East London. Her first book, Ground Control, was published in 2009 to wide spread acclaim. The Royal Commission's Fellow in the Built Environment between 2011-2014, she is a regular contributor to The Guardian and a frequent broadcaster and commentator.

Essential reading .... As attempts to address the crisis are still inadequate - indeed, some government policies are making it worse - and as it shows little sign of improving in the near future, the facts of this human catastrophe can't be stated too much or too strongly. The first achievement of Anna Minton's book Big Capital is to do just that -- Rowan Moore * Observer * Timely and relevant ... I can't recommend it enough -- Josie Long Anna Minton goes digging into the housing crisis in London and beyond. She gives us an account that indicates the crisis was made through decisions and wilful distortions ... reads like a sort of murder mystery, fully exposed -- Saskia Sassen * author of Expulsions * Diligent and determined ... Eye-opening ... Minton builds a powerful case ... A call to imagine what is politically possible -- Richard Godwin * Evening Standard * Fierce, incisive, important. Anyone who lives or works in a building should read this book -- Will Self A studied, sustained attack on a market that has been mishandled by successive governments for 40 years, not because politicians have been unable to remedy it but because it has been expedient not to. It makes for painful - yet compelling - reading -- Nathan Brooker * Financial Times * Powerfully written ... It's hard not to come away with a fresh sense of outrage -- Matthew Partridge * Moneyweek * Cutting through the jargon and spin [Minton] argues that housing is a human right, not purely a financial asset, and offers clear-sighted solutions -- Antonia Charlesworth * Big Issue * Big Capital adds to what must be a commitment to change. It lays out clearly that the struggle for space will be at the top of the agenda within large cities -- Lisa Mckenzie, Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, London School of Economics