How to tackle the hoarding of houses in 'Billionaires Row' | Aditya Chakrabortty | Comment is free | The Guardian

How to tackle the hoarding of houses in 'Billionaires Row' | Aditya Chakrabortty | Comment is free | The Guardian: "How to tackle the hoarding of houses in 'Billionaires Row' Britain is in the middle of a housing crisis, with thousands of people sleeping rough. We should use the tax system to penalise under-occupation"

"What about decriminalising residential squatting repeal sec 144 shelter is a basic human right"-phoenix

So why do we tolerate the hoarding of houses? This weekend, the Guardian detailed how one of the priciest streets in Britain, The Bishops Avenue in north London, has become a stockpile of unused mansions worth around £350m. My colleague Rob Booth described how many of the homes are not only empty, but derelict: ferns sprout out of staircases; pigeon carcasses decompose on rotting carpets.

Doesn't such epic neglect cost money? Not a bit of it. The owners can still look forward to hefty profits from selling each of these ruins. London addresses are so sought after that people will pay over the odds even for a wreck.

Outside The Bishops Avenue and its 120 unused bedrooms, 6,437 people were counted last year as sleeping rough in the capital alone. At the last count 344,294 households in London were on local authority waiting lists for housing. These figures don't include those in overcrowded flats holding out for a transfer.

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