評論
打印
New homes
新家
Building blocks
添磚加瓦
The government makes a lame attempt to boost house-building
政府促進房地產建設的步伐跌跌撞撞
AS GEORGE OSBORNE prepared to deliver his autumn statement, on December 2nd, Danny Alexander, his Liberal Democrat deputy at the Treasury, announced a slew of investments in infrastructure. These included a much-needed 15 billion (24 billion) for roads, as well as 2.3 billion for flood defences. Mr Alexander tried to make much of the coalition's plans on housing, too, trumpeting 13,000 new homes to be built at Bicester, a town in Oxfordshire, which would then be designated as a garden city. The government will need to do much more, however, to solve Britain's housing problem.
隨著喬治·奧斯本準備發表其秋日宣言，12月2日，來自自由民主黨的英國財政部第一副大臣丹尼·亞歷山大宣布了拉動基礎建設的投資計劃。其中包括道路急需的150億英鎊（折合240億美元）以及防洪的23億英鎊。亞歷山大試圖推動更多聯邦計劃在房屋上，吹噓將在牛津郡的比斯特鎮修建13000棟新房并將其建成花園城市。然而，要解決英國的房屋問題，政府仍需要做出更多努力。
On average, 140,000 homes have been built in each of the past four years, far fewer than the 240,000 new houses needed annually. With supply constrained, house prices continue to rise, by 19% in London over the past year. There is an estimated deficit of as many as 1m houses.
過去四年中，平均每年新建140,000座房屋，遠遠少于每年240，000座房屋生物的需求。由于供應有限，今年房屋價格仍然持續上漲了19%。據估計，英國房屋缺口高達100萬。
Bicester is in the arc north and west of London's green belt that is ideal territory for more house-building: it is good for commuters to the capital and other hubs of employment such as Oxford and Cambridge. It is the arc where, after the second world war, the government built several garden cities—new towns that combined employment with a pleasant place to live. Bicester has good transport links and plenty of brownfield land (most of the new homes will be on land now owned by the defence ministry). It also has an MP who supports more construction.
比斯特位于倫敦綠化地帶的北部和西部的弧形地區，是修建更多住宅區的理想地點：有利于上班族前往首都以及其他諸如牛津和劍橋之類的工作中心。自二戰之后，政府在這片弧形區域修建了一些花園城市——適合工作和居住的新型城鎮。比斯特擁有良好的交通網和大量肥沃的土地（這塊領域中大多數新住宅區現在屬于國防部）。還有一位國會議員支持更多的建筑項目。
Yet the Bicester houses are “not even a drop in the ocean,” says Paul Cheshire of the London School of Economics. The politicians are just going through the motions, he says. “This is political window dressing.” And that is assuming the homes even get built. Construction at the other recent attempt to fashion a new garden city—in Ebbsfleet, south-east of London—has barely begun.
然而，倫敦經濟學院的保羅·切希爾表示，比斯特鎮的房屋量過少，甚至都算不上是“滄海一粟”。政治家們不過是做做樣子而已，“這是政治粉飾太平的一種方式”。即使建造了房屋也不過如此。而在倫敦東南的艾貝斯費特鎮建立新式花園城市的計劃甚至還未起步。
Locals in Bicester are not pleased, either, raising familiar concerns about crowded schools, bad traffic and stretched health care. “We don't even have a proper hospital,” says Claire, a hairdresser. “How are we going to support 13,000 more homes?”
比斯特的當地人對此并不高興，大多越來越擔憂學校擁擠、交通堵塞和看病時間會延長。發型師克萊爾說，“我們甚至都沒有足夠大的醫院，怎么支撐13000多戶人家的正常運轉呢？”
Meanwhile, Mr Alexander suggested another solution to the lack of housing: the first government involvement in house-building in a generation. He announced a pilot scheme near Cambridge to build 10,000 new homes, warning developers, “If you don't build, we will.”
與此同時，亞歷山大針對房屋匱乏提出了另一個解決方案：第一代政府只干涉一代人的房屋建設。他宣布了在劍橋郡附近修建10,000套新房屋的試行計劃，并警告開發商們，“如果你們不修，那就讓我們來。”
The answer is simpler, says Mr Cheshire: the government should amend planning regulations to allow construction on the green belt. “Nothing short of radical” solutions will solve the problem, he says. But the benefits of such changes take a long time to filter through. The drawbacks for NIMBYs are apparent immediately, especially just ahead of an election.
切希爾表示，答案可以更簡單些：政府應修訂計劃規定，允許在綠化地帶修建房屋，“強制”執行即可解決這個問題。但是這類變革的益處要過很久才能顯示出來。 鄰避癥候群（(NIMBY=not in my back yard，指反對建筑有害設施的運動或人）的阻撓顯而易見，尤其是大選迫在眉睫的情況下。譯者：毛慧
譯文屬譯生譯世
