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New homes
新家
Building blocks
添砖加瓦
The government makes a lame attempt to boost house-building
政府促进房地产建设的步伐跌跌撞撞
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.
随着乔治·奥斯本准备发表其秋日宣言，12月2日，来自自由民主党的英国财政部第一副大臣丹尼·亚历山大宣布了拉动基础建设的投资计划。其中包括道路急需的150亿英镑（折合240亿美元）以及防洪的23亿英镑。亚历山大试图推动更多联邦计划在房屋上，吹嘘将在牛津郡的比斯特镇修建13000栋新房并将其建成花园城市。然而，要解决英国的房屋问题，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.
过去四年中，平均每年新建140,000座房屋，远远少于每年240，000座房屋生物的需求。由于供应有限，今年房屋价格仍然持续上涨了19%。据估计，英国房屋缺口高达100万。
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.
比斯特位于伦敦绿化地带的北部和西部的弧形地区，是修建更多住宅区的理想地点：有利于上班族前往首都以及其他诸如牛津和剑桥之类的工作中心。自二战之后，政府在这片弧形区域修建了一些花园城市——适合工作和居住的新型城镇。比斯特拥有良好的交通网和大量肥沃的土地（这块领域中大多数新住宅区现在属于国防部）。还有一位国会议员支持更多的建筑项目。
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，伦敦经济学院的保罗·切希尔表示，比斯特镇的房屋量过少，甚至都算不上是“沧海一粟”。政治家们不过是做做样子而已，“这是政治粉饰太平的一种方式”。即使建造了房屋也不过如此。而在伦敦东南的艾贝斯费特镇建立新式花园城市的计划甚至还未起步。
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?”
比斯特的当地人对此并不高兴，大多越来越担忧学校拥挤、交通堵塞和看病时间会延长。发型师克莱尔说，“我们甚至都没有足够大的医院，怎么支撑13000多户人家的正常运转呢？”
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.”
与此同时，亚历山大针对房屋匮乏提出了另一个解决方案：第一代政府只干涉一代人的房屋建设。他宣布了在剑桥郡附近修建10,000套新房屋的试行计划，并警告开发商们，“如果你们不修，那就让我们来。”
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.
切希尔表示，答案可以更简单些：政府应修订计划规定，允许在绿化地带修建房屋，“强制”执行即可解决这个问题。但是这类变革的益处要过很久才能显示出来。 邻避症候群（(NIMBY=not in my back yard，指反对建筑有害设施的运动或人）的阻挠显而易见，尤其是大选迫在眉睫的情况下。译者：毛慧
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