There’s always a demand for rooms in cheap areas, says a spokesman for a lodgers website
The BBC will be very multiculturally correct, with Polish workers, Kosovan refugees, a Thai bride & an Iranian immigrant as tenants
But since we are talking about rooms in peoples homes, I expect there will be a lot of discreet discrimination going on, though not as blatant as in the old No Irish, No Coloureds, No Children days
Just recently there has been a renewal of demands to abandon the decennial census of population, on the grounds that it is too slow & cumbersome to keep up with rapid changes at local level such as those brought about by the recent wave of immigration
Those arguing this case have a point but not, I think, a winning hand. For in this country the census of population is combined with a census of housing. No other source can give so much basic detail on the stock & how people organise themselves to fit into it. This is especially true when it comes to individual towns & even smaller areas
At a time of possibly seismic changes in the supply & demand for housing, we surely need reliable information on the response to these changes
