Ipswich has a high proportion of low-income earners and claimants, who are taken advantage of by letting agents offering precarious tenancies. How can tenants take control of their lives or focus on global political issues when we are constantly worrying about scraping together a deposit, paying the rent, bills, and for food.
It's going to get harder to find accomodation to rent as more University Campus Suffolk students move into town, as there's already limited and low quality housing stock. ‘Waterfront’ apartment developments have no gardens, are unaffordable, poorly designed, energy wasting, and ugly. They are meant for City commuters, and promote an unsustainable nuclear-unit lifestyle. Everyone in tiny boxes using the same appliances as next door, with no common space or bond.
Ipswich River Defences are insufficient to protect us all from extreme floods, and yet our low-lying region is predicted to be severely affected by climate change-related flooding. East Anglia was once called the Bread Basket of Britain and yet most of the population now are alienated from their food supply. The essential art of growing vegetables is not on the school curriculum. Is it any wonder our young people leave town, saying it’s rubbish, that nothing happens?
Ipswich needs better facilities and a re-focus on community regeneration and empowerment. We believe a prerequisite in the fight for these demands is having a stable homebase shared with likeminded people. Living in a housing co-operative could inspire people to create other autonomous spaces in town - social centres, community farms and neighbourhood natural power
schemes.
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