‘The answer to the nation’s housing crisis? “Britain needs more slums.” But now the Adam Smith Institute has been forced to defend an Oxford student whose proposal to introduce favela-style living into the UK provoked death threats on social media.
In a blog published on the libertarian think-tank’s website, Theo Clifford, a Philosophy, Politics and Economics student at Merton College, Oxford, proposed sweeping away safety regulations to allow the creation of jerry-built slum dwellings designed for those who enjoy living cheek-by-jowl with their fellow poverty stricken.
“Sweeping deregulation is the only way to provide Britain with the slums it is crying out for,” wrote Clifford, who describes himself as a “recovering Lib Dem” with dreams “of being a yuppie.”’
