John Lewis defends plans to build 10,000 rental homes on its land
John Lewis defends plans to build 10,000 rental homes on its land
Group has submitted planning application for projects in west and south-east London in face of criticism
It's not the silliest idea ever, though I'm not very fond of the "build houses just to rent" business model.
The site they mention in Reading is very close to the centre of town (minus 4 lanes of dual carriageway). It'll be interesting to see what they put up (and how many cars they expect residents to own)
More homes being built should be celebrated, regardless of whether they're intended for the rental market or not.
More rental homes means cheaper rent, means less profitable buy-to-let, means cheaper homes.
Can’t wait for the day that even the middle class can’t afford to own a home, Tarquin can live in the John Lewis slum and look down on those in the ALDI gutter.
The real issue is going to be that there won't be a middle class. Everything about our tax and benefits system is designed to bring about the destruction of the middle class.
Corporations getting involved in the lease market is not a good thing. This is exactly why the US and Canada has so much of an issues with housing. I actually find this sad not good.
Could be good could be bad. We do need more homes, some people genuinely don't want the responsibility of owning a home and John Lewis is a relatively ethically run company (I think it's owned by the employees).
Maybe they should just sell the homes instead, but if they were to rent them out at an affordable rate that also could be quite good.
This sounds like dystopian hell. Corporate owned housing...
John Lewis isn’t a corporation, it’s an employee-owned partnership and has pretty good ethics. And decent rental accommodation is very much needed in this country.