The Economist 翻译系列 NO. 3

原文摘自The Economist杂志，AUG3RD-9TH 2017

The outrageous cost of housing constrains the economy and poisons politics

高房价限制了经济发展并危害到政治。

ON EVERY side, Britain’s politicians are grappling with problems of immense scale and nightmarish complexity. How to manage the departure from the European Union? How to help a crumbling health service cope with an ageing, weakening population? How to deal with persistent regional deprivation? Yet one national scourge that holds back the economy and poisons politics is readily solvable—politicians just need to be brave enough to act. That scourge is the cost of housing.

在每一个方面，英国的政治家们都在与大量噩梦般复杂的问题挣扎。如何管理好脱欧？如何帮助破碎的保健事业面对日益老龄化和衰弱的人口？如何处理持续的地区性贫困？但是有一个阻碍经济发展和危害政治的全国性的问题已经能够解决了---政治家们只需要敢于采取行动就行。这个问题就是住房。

Through the roof

猛涨

The ratio of median house prices to earnings in England hit 7.7 in 2016, its highest recorded level. In the past four decades house prices have grown by more in Britain than in any other G7 country. Home ownership has been falling for more than a decade, after rising for most of the past century. In London housing is outlandishly dear: before the Brexit vote sent the pound tumbling, it was the priciest city in the world for renters.

2016年，英格兰的平均房价收入比达到了7.7，创历史最高记录。过去40年中，英国的房价涨得比任何其它G7国家都多。在上个世纪的大部分时间一直上涨之后，自有住房数量已持续下跌了十多年。伦敦的房价贵得离谱。在脱欧选举使得英镑大跌之前， 伦敦是世界上租金最贵的城市。

The cost of housing has knock-on effects across the economy. As people are forced out to the suburbs, cities become less dynamic. Workers waste time on marathon, energy-sapping commutes. People from the regions cannot afford to move to cities where they might find work. Businesses cannot clear land to build. It is perhaps no coincidence that Britain’s growing housing mess has coincided with stagnant productivity.

住房成本对经济有冲击效应。由于人们不得不住到郊区去，城市的活力降低了。打工者们把大量时间浪费在马拉松式、令人精疲力竭的上下班穿梭中。乡下的人们无法搬到他们可能找到工作的城市。企业也无法清空土地来造房子。也许英国日益严峻的住房问题与迟滞不前的生产力并非巧合。

All this has fostered a growing sense of inequity. Britons over the age of 65, a fifth of the population, own over 40% of the housing wealth held by owner-occupiers. Youngsters with rich parents can buy their first house thanks to the “Bank of Mum and Dad”. Everyone else must resign themselves to renting small properties for life, or to continuing to pay off their mortgage long after retirement. At the election in June half of all private renters voted for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn, up from a third who supported the party in 2010. As home-ownership declines, the Conservatives, in particular, are beginning to worry —as indeed they should.

所有这些产生了一种持续的不公平感。65岁以上的英国人占人口的1/5，却拥有自有住房40%的房产财富。拥有有钱父母的年轻人买得起他们的第一套房，归功于“爸妈银行”。而其他所有人不得不委屈自己一辈子租个小房子，或者每月还贷款直至退休很久以后。在六月的选举中，半数的私人租房者投票给工党和Jeremy Corbyn,，而2010年只有1/3的人支持工党。随着自有住房数的下降，值得注意的是，保守党开始担心了---实际上他们也确实应该担心。

What makes Britain’s housing squeeze maddening is that, unlike many other problems, something can easily be done about it. Britain needs to get building. The consensus is that, to keep prices in check, it must put up 300,000 houses a year, double what it erected in 2015-16. Mr Corbyn says the answer is a huge expansion of public housing, like the one in the Wilson and Callaghan governments in the 1970s. This would be expensive, especially if such housing was let at below-market rates. And few Britons aspire to rent from the council for life.

令英国的住房困境疯狂的，不像其它问题那样，只是一些可以轻易解决的原因。英国需要开始造房子。调查显示，为了约束房价，每年必须造30万套住房，相当于2015-16投放量的两倍。Corbyn先生说，解决的方法是大规模扩大公共住房，就像70年代的Wilson和Callaghan政府那样。这么做很贵，特别是如果这些房子以低于市场价出租的话。并且，大多数英国人不愿余生都从议会租房子。

Better would be to unleash the market. A change to regulations on green-belt land, which surrounds cities and which is designed to block construction, is long overdue. Far from being a bucolic retreat, much of the green belt is intensively farmed. By one estimate, more of Surrey is devoted to golf courses than houses. Within Greater London enough green-belt land languishes to build 1.6m houses at average densities.

更好的方法是放开市场。环绕城市周边的、用于阻隔建筑的绿色地带，人们期待它的政策变更已经期待了很久。许多绿色地带被集中耕种着，而远远不是田园牧歌式的安静的地方。据统计，Surry被用于建设高尔夫球场的地块多于建造住房的。而大伦敦范围内，有足够的绿色地带躺着可用于建造160万套普通密度的住房。

The government should also cut stamp duty, a land tax levied on property transactions. Over the long term the burden has risen, which is one reason why the rate of transactions has slumped. Abolishing or replacing stamp duty would help more young families live in decent homes. Oldies could downsize at less cost, freeing up more of Britain’s 25m or so empty bedrooms.

政府也应该减少对于不动产交易征收的土地印花税。长期来说，税负增加也是交易量下跌的一个原因。废除或者变更印花税有助于年轻的家庭住上体面的家。老房子可以更低的成本改建缩小，以释放出英国所需的250万个左右的空房间。

And Westminster needs to do away with the perverse incentives arising from local-government taxation, in particular the out-of-date system of council tax, which is levied on housing. Councils miss out on much of the extra local tax revenue from new houses, because it is hoovered up and redistributed by central government. But they are lumbered with the cost of providing local services for newcomers. That should change. Councils should be allowed to charge taxes that reflect the true values of properties—and keep the proceeds.

英国议会需要废除各种反常刺激，这些刺激通常来自地方政府的税收，特别是过时的针对房产的地方议会税收系统。由于新建住房是由中央政府管理和分配的，地方议会们错失了许多征收额外地方税的机会。于是他们开始通过为新来的人提供地方服务而征收费用。这种状况需要改变。地方议会应该有权征收反应房产实际价值的税，并保留这份收益。

Economically straightforward is not the same as politically easy. Even so, Theresa May, the prime minister, has so far failed to show any mettle over housing. Her government has proposed nothing more than tweaks to a broken system. This lack of leadership feeds a crisis that is entirely unnecessary.

经济上的直截了当并不等于政治上的简便。即便如此，到目前为止，梅姨，英国首相，还没有展现出任何在住房问题上的勇气。她的政府除了在这个支离破碎的系统中做了少量微调之外，再没有提出任何别的方案。这种领导力的缺乏，将助长一场完全没必要的危机。

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