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Rooms for improvement

副標題：住房問題尚有改進余地

How to solve Britain’s housing crisis

如何解決英國的住房危機

The outrageous cost of housing constrains the economy and poisons politics

高的離譜的房價，使得經(jīng)濟疲軟，朝綱敗壞

Aug 3rd 2017   2017年8月3日文章



（圖片：英格蘭住房價格中位數(shù)與收入比）

ON EVERY side, Britain’s politicians are grappling with problems of immense scale and nightmarish complexity. How to manage the departure from the European Union? How to help a crumbling health service cope with an ageing, weakening population? How to deal with persistent regional deprivation? Yet one national scourge that holds back the economy and poisons politics is readily solvable—politicians just need to be brave enough to act. That scourge is the cost of housing.

英國的政客們目前正忙于處理決定國家命運的且驚人復(fù)雜的眾多大事件，但很不幸，他們陷入了多線作戰(zhàn)的處境。如何成功脫歐？如何讓一個搖搖欲墜的國民醫(yī)療體系為日益老化、弱化的人口結(jié)構(gòu)服務(wù)？如何處理地區(qū)貧困的頑疾？但至少，還有一項另這個國家苦惱的，使經(jīng)濟停滯不前、朝綱敗壞的問題亟待處理----當然政客們得有勇氣邁出那一步，那就是房價問題

Through the roof
The ratio of median house prices to earnings in England hit 7.7 in 2016, its highest recorded level. In the past four decades house prices have grown by more in Britain than in any other G7 country. Home ownership has been falling for more than a decade, after rising for most of the past century. In London housing is outlandishly dear: before the Brexit vote sent the pound tumbling, it was the priciest city in the world for renters.

在2016年，英格蘭地區(qū)的住房價格中位數(shù)與收入比例達到了7.7，創(chuàng)下了歷史記錄。在過去40年中，英國的房價增長幅度是所有G7國家中最高的，擁有住房產(chǎn)權(quán)人數(shù)自上世紀末達到頂峰后，已持續(xù)10多年保持下降。倫敦的房價更是上了天：在脫歐公投使英鎊跳水前，它是全球房租最貴的城市

The cost of housing has knock-on effects across the economy. As people are forced out to the suburbs, cities become less dynamic. Workers waste time on marathon, energy-sapping commutes. People from the regions cannot afford to move to cities where they might find work. Businesses cannot clear land to build. It is perhaps no coincidence that Britain’s growing housing mess has coincided with stagnant productivity.

房價的居高不下已經(jīng)對經(jīng)濟產(chǎn)生了連帶效應(yīng)，人們被逼著往郊區(qū)遷徙，城市變的越來越失去活力，上班族們的時間和精力大量耗費在路途遙遠的上下班路途上，來自各地區(qū)的人們或許能找到市區(qū)的工作，但卻負擔不起遷入市區(qū)的住房成本，企業(yè)工廠也無力購地擴建，英國的房價市場的混亂造成了生產(chǎn)力的停滯，這樣的猜測或許并非空穴來風

All this has fostered a growing sense of inequity. Britons over the age of 65, a fifth of the population, own over 40% of the housing wealth held by owner-occupiers. Youngsters with rich parents can buy their first house thanks to the “Bank of Mum and Dad”. Everyone else must resign themselves to renting small properties for life, or to continuing to pay off their mortgage long after retirement. At the election in June half of all private renters voted for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn, up from a third who supported the party in 2010. As home-ownership declines, the Conservatives, in particular, are beginning to worry (see article)—as indeed they should.

所有上述情況，讓人產(chǎn)生了對社會公平性的懷疑。在英國，65歲以上的人口數(shù)量為1/5，卻占據(jù)著40%住房的產(chǎn)權(quán)，富二代們可以靠著爹媽的贊助購買首套房，而其他人則要么不甘心地租住鴿籠謀生，要么得背上退休后都還不清的房貸。在6月的大選中，與2010年的1/3支持率相比，一半的私人租房者把票投給了科爾賓的工黨，隨著住房產(chǎn)權(quán)擁有率的下降，保守黨開始慌了---他們早該這樣了

[copy]What makes Britain’s housing squeeze maddening is that, unlike many other problems, something can easily be done about it. Britain needs to get building. The consensus is that, to keep prices in check, it must put up 300,000 houses a year, double what it erected in 2015-16. Mr Corbyn says the answer is a huge expansion of public housing, like the one in the Wilson and Callaghan governments in the 1970s. This would be expensive, especially if such housing was let at below-market rates. And few Britons aspire to rent from the council for life.

與其他問題不同，英國房價瘋漲的問題是可以輕松被解決的，英國需要增加住房供給，這是控制房價的必然措施，為達到此目的，每年需建造30萬套住房，是15-16年的兩倍，科爾賓稱，此舉旨在為了大幅增加公共住房供給，正如70年代的工黨哈羅德·威爾遜政府和詹姆斯·卡拉翰政府所做的一樣。這樣做將會大量增加公共開支，尤其是若公共住房被允許以低于市場利率出租的話，另外的問題是，很少有英國人愿意向地方政府租房租一輩子。

Better would be to unleash the market. A change to regulations on green-belt land, which surrounds cities and which is designed to block construction, is long overdue. Far from being a bucolic retreat, much of the green belt is intensively farmed. By one estimate, more of Surrey is devoted to golf courses than houses. Within Greater London enough green-belt land languishes to build 1.6m houses at average densities.

所以本刊認為，解除房地產(chǎn)市場發(fā)展的束縛，會是一個更好的方法，其一就是修改束縛城市擴張的“綠化帶”規(guī)則，該規(guī)則的愿意是防止城市過度擴張，早已過時，許多土地并沒有起到戶外休閑的作用，更多的是作為農(nóng)田被集中開墾。譬如，有人估計，許多薩里郡的土地都被用作建設(shè)高爾夫球場，而不是住房，還有，大倫敦地區(qū)有大把閑置“綠化帶”土地，按平均密度計算，可以建造160萬套住房

（譯者注：英國的城市綠化帶是一種針對城市擴張規(guī)模所設(shè)立的限制，在城市的四周用鄉(xiāng)村包圍，保持土地用于農(nóng)業(yè)、林地等，用于戶外休閑等作用，保證生態(tài)多樣性）

The government should also cut stamp duty, a land tax levied on property transactions. Over the long term the burden has risen, which is one reason why the rate of transactions has slumped. Abolishing or replacing stamp duty would help more young families live in decent homes. Oldies could downsize at less cost, freeing up more of Britain’s 25m or so empty bedrooms.

其二，政府應(yīng)該考慮減免房產(chǎn)交易的印花稅。印花稅一直是是成交率低迷的原因，廢除或代替印花稅將幫助更多的年輕家庭改善居住條件，而對老人們來說，換置更小住房的成本將降低，可以激活英國約2500萬套空置住房。[/copy]

（譯者注：英國的印花稅根據(jù)房產(chǎn)價格分檔，每檔皆為固定比率，2016年英國頒布了新印花稅政策，購買出租項目和第二套住房，印花稅比原固定比率多3%）

And Westminster needs to do away with the perverse incentives arising from local-government taxation, in particular the out-of-date system of council tax, which is levied on housing. Councils miss out on much of the extra local tax revenue from new houses, because it is hoovered up and redistributed by central government. But they are lumbered with the cost of providing local services for newcomers. That should change. Councils should be allowed to charge taxes that reflect the true values of properties—and keep the proceeds.

其三，議會需要廢除那些違背常情的地方政府稅收政策，這些政策是房價上漲的誘因，尤其是針對住戶而征收的房屋稅（又名市政稅，人頭稅），該系統(tǒng)早已過時。還有，地方政府無法獲取新建住房帶來的額外稅收收入，因為這些稅收都是直接上繳中央并由其再分配了，但地方政府又不得不為本地公共設(shè)施花費大量支出，來應(yīng)付入住新房的外來者，這樣的情況不能再繼續(xù)了，地方政府應(yīng)當有權(quán)力根據(jù)房產(chǎn)的真實價值直接征稅，并保留這些稅收的收益

Economically straightforward is not the same as politically easy. Even so, Theresa May, the prime minister, has so far failed to show any mettle over housing. Her government has proposed nothing more than tweaks to a broken system. This lack of leadership feeds a crisis that is entirely unnecessary.

在經(jīng)濟問題上做大刀闊斧的改革，不比在政治上那么簡單，正是由于如此，首相特蕾莎·梅德迄今為止，在住房問題上是束手無策，她領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的政府僅僅對病入膏肓的住房系統(tǒng)采取了一些不痛不癢的微調(diào)，正是她的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)無方助長了一場本可完全避免的住房危機