Extension

TOPIC 1

HOUSING

I. Read the following texts. Learn the words and word-combina­tions in italics and use them when making a summary of each text (writ­ten). Consult the Supplementary Topical List for translation

Homes Building Slashed By Fifth — Rent Up 28%

Two savage new blows have been dealt at new council home building and at the millions living in existing council accommoda­tion. The government is slashing its housing investment programme by 21 per cent and raising council rents by 28 per cent over a full year.

Figures circulated by the Scottish Environment Secretary showed a cut of 20 per cent in council home expenditure, but increases in assist­ance to private housing.

The British Environment Secretary told local authorities to "concentrate on modernising, improving and making a better use of the existing stock, rather than on the general provision of new houses".

Unjustly Evicted Council Tenants

Council house tenants are being unjustly evicted because they lack the basic legal rights available to tenants of private landlords.

The London Housing Aid Centre (LHAC) has dealt with numerous cases where public tenants have been evicted or threatened with eviction, where private tenants would have been completely secure. People are said to be often evicted on the basis of unproven allegations, very small rent arrears.

Public tenants have almost no legal protection, and can be evicted from their homes even though they have committed only a minor breach, or no breach at all, of their tenancy agreements.

Four Million Trapped By Housing Decay

Nearly four million people are living in exceptional concentrations of poverty and deprivation" in the declining inner areas of major cities, says a govern­ment-commissioned report.

The report spotlights areas of the cities of London, Liverpool and Birmingham which face some of the worst problems.

In Inner London, for example, low-skilled workers are caught in a housing trap, an "almost impenetrable cordon", unable to buy their own homes while denied access to council housing.

Deteriorating houses, vandalism and petty crime, plus, in some areas, a high level of tension between neighbours, mean that resi­dents and their children start with unequal chances in life.

If people in these and worse areas of Britain are not helped soon and effectively their decline could accelerate and could lead to a situation where conditions would become too difficult and costly to retrieve.

(After British press)

Mobile Homes

On the roads there moved many mobile homes. Early in my trav­els I had become aware of these new things under the sun, of their great numbers. Sometimes as much as forty feet long, they are com­plete with air-conditioners, toilets, baths, and invariably televi­sion. The parks where they sit are sometimes landscaped and equipped with every facility. A mobile home is drawn to the trailor park and installed on a ramp, a heavy rubber sewer pipe is bolted underneath, water and electric power connected, the television antenna raised, and the family is in residence. The park men charge a ground rent plus fees for water and electricity. Sometimes the park has a general store for supplies, but if not the supermarkets which dot the coun­tryside are available. The fact that these homes can be moved does not mean that they do move. Sometimes their owners stay for years in one place. It was a whole way of life that was new to me.

Why did a family choose to live in such a home? Well, it was comfortable, compact, easy to keep clean, easy to heat.

In Main: "I'm tired of living in a cold barn with the wind whistl­ing through, tired of the torment of little taxes and payments for this and that. It's warm and cozy and in the summer the air-con­ditioner keeps us cool."

"Has job uncertainty anything to do with the rapid increase of these units?"

"Well perhaps there may be some of that. Who knows what is in store tomorrow? Mechanics, plant engineers, architects, account­ants, and even here and there a doctor or a dentist live in the mobile. If a plant or a factory closes down, you are not trapped with prop­erty you can't sell. Suppose the husband has a job and is buying a house and there's a layoff. The value goes out of his house. But if he has a mobile home he rents a trucking service and moves on and he hasn't lost anything."

"How are they purchased?"

"On time, just like an automobile. It's like paying rent." The payments, even if high and festooned with interest, are no worse than renting an apartment and fighting the owner for heat."

"Don't you miss some kind of permanence?"

"Who's got permanence? Factory closes down, you move on. Good times and things opening up, you move on where it's better. You got roots you sit and starve."

("Travels with Charley" by J. Steinbeck. Adapted.)