MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge
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Billions in profit, millions in need
GLYN ROBBINS recommends an exposé of how speculative property investment is destroying access to public-sector housing
BUILDING INEQUALITY: The big 10 housebuilders generated 30 per cent of new homes in Britain in 2018
FIONA O CONNOR recommends an unflinching depiction of child sexual abuse and its aftershocks, set in a working-class Liverpool family
New releases from Paul Weller, Wet Leg, and Dino Saluzzi
PAUL DONOVAN relishes the spectacle of a 1950s detective in pursuit of a 500-year-old murder mystery
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
The Property Lobby: The Hidden Reality Behind the Housing Crisis
by Bob Colenutt
Policy Press, £13.59
IN 1975, Bob Colenutt and the late Peter Ambrose — a staunch ally of the Defend Council Housing campaign — wrote a brilliant little book, The Property Machine. It was one of the first attempts to describe the dynamics of the corporate development industry, a subject that remains shrouded in commercial confidentiality and PR spin.
In the 45 years since, that machine has become a monster, dominating the economies and urban landscapes of global capitalism. But the forces that have allowed speculative property investment to steam-roller working-class communities around the world are still not widely understood.
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GLYN ROBBINS celebrates how tenant-led campaigning forced the government to drop Pay to Stay, fixed-term tenancies and council home sell-offs under Cameron — but warns that Labour’s faith in private developers will require renewed resistance
GLYN ROBBINS advises caution when seeking advice on trans children from the conservative and reactionary forces that are exploiting them
GLYN ROBBINS warns that Labour are now solidly in the ‘just build more’ camp led by business interests and developers rather than tailoring policies to social need
A campaign of non-payment of energy bills has already gained significant support — it could be an important part of the emerging resistance to the Tory offensive that is hitting the streets next month, argues GLYN ROBBINS
