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4). This Is Intended To Ensure That Available Space Within London Is Used ...

4). This is intended to ensure that available space within London is used sensibly to help lessen the effects of shortages in housing building sites. Clearly this will be of long term assistance to both key workers and non key workers. On a macro level another example of the government's efforts in this area is their current emphasis on building ‘sustainable urban environments', an emphasis which is of benefit to all of those affected by the affordable housing problem, not just those considered to be key workers.
The government has also conducted many research initiatives into identifying the root causes of affordable housing problems and aiming to eliminate them. Although these initiatives only address the needs of those affected by the affordable housing problem in an indirect sense, it is clear that the government's efforts on a macro scale (Karn, V. and Wolman, H. (1992) Ch 1) are intended to help those key workers and those non key workers who are all affected by the affordable housing problem.
The problem remains however, that non key workers simply do not get the levels of support that key workers may qualify for, in spite of the fact that perhaps both sectors arguably equally deserve this. Therefore, would the problem of affordable housing be more fairly approached by simply abolishing the requirement for workers to qualify as key workers in order to qualify for housing support within London? Another approach would be to make it easier to fall within the definition of what a key worker is. The answer to these two suggestions is that perhaps there is an argument for this to be the case, but it must be counterbalanced against the fact that resources within this area are limited. It is inevitable that there will be a deserving case to be made for many third parties who do not fall within the current definition of what a key worker is and of course, it is the case that it is desirable for all of those who are in need to receive housing support.
As we have seen explained above however, there is a cogent rationale for why support is targeted at the key worker sector in particular. Key workers provide valuable services to the entire community and to neglect them would be detrimental to the levels of available services which all those resident in London often depend upon. The reality is that limited resources have to be dissipated in ways that are prescriptive and designed to exclude some categories of people. This exclusion does not point to an idea that the excluded person is undeserving; instead it points to the fact that there are limited resources which have to be expended in a frugal manner. However, this is not to say that more lateral thinking on the part of the government and a more open acknowledgement on the part of the government that non key workers experience acute housing need in London would not go a long way to lessening the housing hardship which they experience.


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