THE QUESTION
Why is housing unaffordable here?
Group cards you judge alike. Groups organise reading; they decide nothing.
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Clusters form from similarity, names come last
Canonical order: link pairs of ideas you judge similar — links are symmetric (A~B is B~A; direction never matters) and a tie holds once 2 members make it.
why
Links are symmetric — A~B is B~A. Clusters are the groups that emerge from held ties, and only a formed cluster can be named, by a person. Your own links carry a ✕ to withdraw; you cannot remove someone else's. Clusters organise the wall and never gate the vote — two cards making the same CLAIM are a merge back in Clarify.
Links and names are made while Cluster is live; the steward’s ← reopens it.
Nobody counts how many homes are actually empty
Scope: here specifically, not everywhere.
cluster 1
Nothing said yet.
unnamed cluster — name it if the group has a common thread, or leave it unnamed (2)
Landlords price on what the market will bear, not on cost
~ Materials and labour … · helddiscussing (1)
Materials and labour both cost what they did at peak
~ Landlords price on wh… · helddiscuss
unnamed cluster — name it if the group has a common thread, or leave it unnamed (2)
The city has no number for how many homes it needs
~ Nobody counts how man… · helddiscuss
Nobody counts how many homes are actually empty
~ The city has no numbe… · heldin focus ↑ · close ✕
unnamed cluster — name it if the group has a common thread, or leave it unnamed (2)
Councils cannot borrow to build at the scale needed
~ Social housing stock … · helddiscuss
Social housing stock was sold and never replaced
~ Councils cannot borro… · helddiscuss
unnamed cluster — name it if the group has a common thread, or leave it unnamed (2)
Nobody can afford to live where the work is
~ The word 'affordable'… · helddiscuss
The word 'affordable' means eighty per cent of a price nobody can pay
~ Nobody can afford to … · helddiscuss
· not yet clustered (33)
The last time this city built at scale it was after a war
A single objection can delay a scheme by two years
Housing benefit sets a floor under rents
Renters move too often to vote here
Infrastructure is promised and arrives a decade late
Nobody in the planning office has ever built anything
~ Nobody has costed wha… · helddiscuss
Parking minimums use land that could be homes
Every scheme is judged on its own, never on the total
Every year of delay is a year of someone's life
~ Rents rise faster tha… · helddiscuss
Politicians are elected by owners, not by renters
Small builders cannot carry the cost of the permission process
The green belt is a line drawn in 1955 and never re-examined
We measure planning approvals, not homes completed
Short lets pay more than a tenancy, so flats leave the market
Rents rise faster than wages every year
The bus does not reach the land that is cheap
Skilled trades left during the last downturn and did not come back
Converting an office costs more than building new
~ Empty flats are worth… · held~ A four-year term is s… · held~ Short lets pay more t… · helddiscuss
Land is bought to hold, not to build on
The people worst affected are never in the room
Homelessness services are funded, prevention is not
Building anything takes years of permissions
The affordable quota is negotiated away after approval
Three firms build most of what gets built here
A four-year term is shorter than a building
~ Converting an office … · helddiscuss
Nobody is responsible for housing outcomes, only for process
~ Nobody has costed wha… · helddiscuss
A deposit now takes a decade to save
~ Rents rise faster tha… · helddiscuss
Nobody has costed what the housing crisis does to the health service
Empty flats are worth more than let ones to some owners
~ Converting an office … · held~ Short lets pay more t… · held~ Offices sit empty whi… · helddiscuss
The viability assessment is written by the developer
The people who object to building already own here
Offices sit empty while flats are unaffordable
~ Empty flats are worth… · helddiscuss
Grant funding arrives in one-year cycles, so nothing long is planned