Aldi. The last thing to sell.
Aldi has bought an abandoned mental health facility in Walthamstow to turn into a supermarket. The land is now worth more than whatever was sitting on it.
THE GIST ON ALDI: "Checkout"
What has Aldi bought?
Aldi just bought an abandoned psychiatric hospital in London to turn into a supermarket, and nobody asked why a mental health facility is worth more as a place to buy frozen peas.
The NHS closed the facility in Walthamstow in 2017. They couldn't afford to run it, the site sat empty for nine years, and now Aldi has bought it.
Why does that matter?
Britain has a mental health crisis and waiting lists are years long. This building has become a supermarket because the commercial value of the land has overtaken the public value of whatever was on it.
That is becoming true of almost every public service in London. Every hospital, school and library is sitting on land that's worth more without it. They're not really institutions any more, just temporary tenants, one budget cut away from becoming a supermarket.
Can you buy it back?
Once you sell public land, you never get it back. If Walthamstow needs a mental health facility in the next ten years, which it will, the NHS will have to buy that land back at commercial rates, which it can't afford. Every sale is a one-way door.
What is the cycle?
The public estate is shrinking and what's left costs more every year. The budget gets squeezed, the land gets sold, the cash plugs this year's hole, and the building's gone.
Permanent decisions solving temporary problems until there's nothing left to sell. So what's left when it's all been sold?
Should closed public buildings be sold off?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
What did Aldi buy?
An abandoned NHS mental health facility in Walthamstow, closed in 2017, which it plans to turn into a supermarket.
Why is selling public land a problem?
You never get it back. If the NHS needs the site again it would have to buy it back at commercial rates.
What is the cycle Huw describes?
The budget gets squeezed, the land gets sold, the cash plugs this year's hole, and the building is gone.
See you on the next one.
What should the next one be? Suggest a topic for Huw to explain
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