Affordable housing to boost the Scottish economy

how to make Scotland thrive after independence

Introduction

I'm doing a series of posts about how Scotland can thrive after independence. This one looks at housebuilding and attracting the right kind of immigrants.

Housing is overpriced in many parts of England

Ed West recently wrote:

This week it was revealed that London’s average rent is now £2,206 a month, up 11.6% in one year, a disastrous and unsustainable figure driven both by planning restrictions and migration. This is reminiscent of the conditions of late Tsarist Russia, yet Britain’s young renters will not start a revolution – instead they will do what the young and ambitious have often done, and leave.

While immigration will remain a major issue during this Parliament, emigration will start to become more salient in 2025. The total numbers won’t be huge, or at least nowhere large enough to affect sky-high net migration figures, but they will involve a large number of the most dynamic and educated.

[...] this social contract is failing for many people: ‘The criminal barrister, who after degree, training, pupillage has to house share with 3 others age 30 for whom having a pet, let alone a child is out of reach and just lost this months savings to replace a snatched phone thinks the British dream is broken as much as other groups.’

The British economy has had high house prices for years, deliberately so, because it's a mechanism for transferring money from hard-working people to the hard-owning ruling class. The Westminster ruling class is the source of all our problems and that's why Scotland needs to be free from it.

How Scotland can gain from this

After independence, Scotland should be able to capitalise on the dysfunctional nature of the Westminster regime.

Firstly we have a plan to build lots of houses. Some of these will be in new towns such as the one I suggested in the central belt, and some will be in new districts of existing cities such as Edinburgh.

Then simply encourage as young professionals living in England -- the sort of people who have to house-share and can't afford a pet let alone start a family -- to move here. They win because they no longer have to pay through the nose for housing (or for electricity, which would also be cheaper). And Scotland wins because we get lots of productive new people.

Commercial buildings & electricity costs

As well as making housing cheaper, Scotland should also reduce the cost of commercial premises such as shops and pubs.

And we should also cut the cost of electricity, which in the UK is some of the most expensive in the world, as this graph demonstrates:

As with housing, the Westminster ruling class has deliberately made electricity much more expensive to buy than the underlying cost of providing the service. They do this so their rich friends can pocket the difference. An independent Scotland would be able to end this rip-off, and should do so as a top priority.