How Britain's obsession with 'more for less' is creating a bricks-without-straw society, and what housing organisations can do about it.

1. Bricks without straw
time to call a halt to the ‘more for less’ society
Julian Dobson, director, Urban Pollinators

2. THE TALE OF OUROBOROS
SCHUMPETER’S CREATIVE DESTRUCTION OR BECK’S RISK SOCIETY?

3. ‘In advanced modernity the social production
of wealth is systematically accompanied by
the social production of risks… hazards and
potential threats have been unleashed to an
extent previously unknown.’
Ulrich Beck, 1992

4. BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW: THE WORLD OF WORK
A BROKEN SOCIAL CONTRACT - WORK IS NO LONGER THE ROUTE OUT OF POVERTY

5. ‘For the first time on record, the majority of
people in poverty are in working families.
Two-thirds of these families are in work.’
MacInnes et al, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2013

6. THE REGENERATION ALTERNATIVE: REVALUE WORK
IS IT TIME TO REWARD PEOPLE FOR BUILDING COMMUNITY, NOT JUST FOR A JOB?

7. BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW: A BROKEN HOUSING ECONOMY
NEARLY 50 YEARS ON FROM CATHY COME HOME, WHY IS HOUSING STILL IN A MESS?

8. The total value of housing stock in the UK is
£5.2 trillion - with 42% of that value in
London and south east England. The
housing stock in Westminster and
Kensington and Chelsea is worth 15% more
than all the homes in Wales.
Savills Residential Property Focus, Q1 2014

9. THE REGENERATION ALTERNATIVE: COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE IDEA OF SHELTER AS A HUMAN RIGHT?

10. BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW: GROWING FINANCIAL EXCLUSION
SOCIAL MOBILITY BECOMES A NONSENSE WHEN THE COST OF LIVING IS PROHIBITIVE

11. The average total debt per household in the
UK in November 2014 was £55,384. Every
household in the UK pays an average of
£2,105 in interest repayments.
The Money Charity, 2015
The debt charity StepChange helped 36,413
people with payday loan debts in 2012 -
nearly 20,000 more than in 2011.

12. THE REGENERATION ALTERNATIVE: BUILD LIVELIHOODS
SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS ARE ABOUT A DECENT INCOME – AND MUCH MORE

13. Are we anchors of our communities?
‘Anchor institutions should commit themselves
to consciously and strategically applying their
place-based economic power, in combination
with their human and intellectual resources, to
better the long-term welfare of the places in
which they reside’
Axelroth and Dubb, 2010

14. ‘PEOPLE ON THE INSIDE WRITE MEMOS. "
PEOPLE ON THE OUTSIDE WRITE POETRY.’ (WALTER BRUEGGEMANN)

15. thank you
www.urbanpollinators.co.uk
Twitter: @juliandobson