Squatting - a solution to Britain's housing crisis?

Video: Sustainable squatting in Bonnington Square

Michele Hanson meets Anna Odrich, the driving force behind the famous Bonnington Squat in London. Could squatting be the solution to Britain's housing crisis? guardian.co.uk, 6 July 2010

Squatting is a contentious issue, but some interesting points are made in this video:

Britain supposedly has a housing crisis, yet there are about 1 million empty homes in the UK, and about 82,000 of those are in London.

Councils who own properties but can't afford to restore them to a liveable standard will often deliberately wreck properties to deter squatters from moving in.

Squatting can involve the re-use and restoration of empty dwellings using reclaimed materials that would otherwise end up in landfill sites.

The restoration and retro-fitting of existing buildings can be far more sustainable as it conserves the planet's resources and preserves historic buildings that are often better designed than new-builds and already part of an existing community.

Unfortunately, VAT has to be paid on building materials to restore an existing property, while no VAT is paid on new-builds, which means new-builds are often the more profitable option.

Viewers' comments are posted here

The Advisory Service for Squatters (ASS), based in London, offers legal and practical advice to squatters and homeless people, and has published The Squatters Handbook, now in its 13th edition with over 150,000 copies sold. The legal advice it contains applies only to England and Wales, where squatting is legal, but not to Scotland and Northern Ireland where laws are different.

As the ASS points out:

"ASS does not promote lawlessness, as squatting is still legal. We help disadvantaged people to find housing, to help themselves when no-one else will. We often recommend that people who are eligible for Priority Need Housing apply to their local Council. ...

The real issue is the difficulty of getting housed, due to profiteering through privitisation and gentrification, which leads to unaffordable rents and the need to take personal action."