£1.40 a litre

RenovationMan · 18 January 2011 at 10:08PM

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Reno, have you ever lived in a more rural area?

It's just I'm re-reading this thread, and your ideas are simplistic, as in, move closer. It's obvious really.

Hi Graham, yes it is obvious isnt it.

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I'm wondering if you have ever lived more rurally, and have had experence with just "moving closer" as if it's something were all missing, and haven't yet had a lightbulb moment.

I never mentioned anything about rural, that was moggy putting words into my mouth, I keep re-iterating that if your job is in a village then you could move to that village, if your job is in a town then you could move to that town, if your job is in a city then you could move to that city. I have absolutely no idea what all the rural stuff is about!! LOL

Graham_Devon wrote: »

My personal feeling, is that given a reasonable choice, and cost effective situation, most would choose to live closer to work. But in reality, those opportunities are rare.

Many of us who went to school in the area I still work in, have had to move further from work, not closer, as the areas with work are those with incoming money. Incoming money, in my more rural area involves tourism and rich people in second homes retiring away from the city.

I can't compete with these people, no matter how nice the ideaology is. Therefore, I have to move further out. Further out, is where the rest of the people like myself live. All getting in our cars, commuting to the places that employ....the places where the wealthier live and holiday.

I said your idea was simplisitc, not as a reflection on you, but because it's a very nice idea, just not workable.I also notice you suggets people sell their homes, and move to something, anything they can afford, to be able to work. I'm afraid at that point, you really are living to work, and it's a situation I hope never to find myself in. Having some quality of life is important. I think you know this, hence your username

You mentioned rural again! However, I know I can trust you to answer a direct question that moggy and the others have been evading, and for good reason.

Imagine if you will that you love your (here we go) rural home. You drive an hour and a half to work in the morning and an hour and a half back home in the evening. You use up a lot of fuel in this journey as your rural home does not have public transport. Fuel starts going up, it keeps increasing at a far higher rate than your income. At the same time all your other costs go up. You really are now living to work because a high proportion of your income is now going into obtaining your income. Your job is no longer cost effective. You make cut backs such as no family holidays, no expensive presents for the kids at xmas, you perhaps have to start doing overtime to make up the difference. However, fuel prices keep going up and even these measures stop helping...

So, what do you do?

sharnad · 18 January 2011 at 11:11PM

RenovationMan wrote: »

If the price of fuel keeps going up then the cost of getting to your distant employer will be more than what you will lose by getting a local job. You will then have the options of either stumping up the cash to live closer to your existing job, moving to a place with better public transport links or to stay put and accept a worst paid job.

I always try to be close to work, anything over a 30 minute commute is wasteful of my time and my money. I have better things to do with both and Ive always been prepared to pay a premium in accomodation to facilitate this.

So wont have the money to get to a distant employer, wont be able to get a local job and wont be able to move closer to work due to the cost of housing

Well doesnt that just sound like fun

RenovationMan · 18 January 2011 at 11:17PM

sharnad wrote: »

So wont have the money to get to a distant employer, wont be able to get a local job and wont be able to move closer to work due to the cost of housing

Well doesnt that just sound like fun

But its how this country is going. No wonder people are emigrating!

hcb42 · 19 January 2011 at 1:33AM

purch wrote: »

You need to improve your credit rating then !!!

I wondered that the other day as did pay at pump at tesco and thought £60 was not going to be enough, but fear not, as the limit has gone up to £99. Which should be good enough until April time, when it will need to increase again;)

I have in the last week bought a new car which does 65 MPG, and I am also getting a new job closer to home as I can no longer justify the horrible commute for environmental or economic reasons so I definitely agree with previous posters on that score. Prior to this my company had agreed to working from home 40% of time and hubby a 9 day fortnight which is a 10% saving in emissions in itself. The more switched on the company the better, but of course this is difficult to achieve in service roles in particular, who make up a large percentage of the workforce. (Perhaps we dont need them open all hours and staffed doing minimal trade. )

Whatever it is it needs a step change.

http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/future-news

Interesting articles, particularly as some of these stories from the future were written in 2007 but are already not a million miles from what we see today.

hcb42 · 19 January 2011 at 2:03AM

RenovationMan wrote: »

But its how this country is going. No wonder people are emigrating!

the grass is not always greener!

moggylover · 19 January 2011 at 3:07AM

RenovationMan wrote: »

What plan?

I should practice what I preach if I were and and actually read what I wrote. I put it into bold often enough. There is no plan to move people or jobs anywhere there is simply the theory that people will naturally move towards living closer to work if they want to continue to work at that company yet their commute is prohibitively expensive.

TBH, this is so simple that I think yopur on a wind up. Thats fine its all 'pantomime' on here anyway, but its boring me now.

I never said it was a "plan to move people or jobs": oh, never mind, no-one can actually be that obtuse unless they are being that thick on purpose and there do seem to be a surfeit of post twisters of that ilk around at the moment.

Graham_Devon · 19 January 2011 at 10:26AM

RenovationMan wrote: »

Imagine if you will that you love your (here we go) rural home. You drive an hour and a half to work in the morning and an hour and a half back home in the evening. You use up a lot of fuel in this journey as your rural home does not have public transport. Fuel starts going up, it keeps increasing at a far higher rate than your income. At the same time all your other costs go up. You really are now living to work because a high proportion of your income is now going into obtaining your income. Your job is no longer cost effective. You make cut backs such as no family holidays, no expensive presents for the kids at xmas, you perhaps have to start doing overtime to make up the difference. However, fuel prices keep going up and even these measures stop helping...

So, what do you do?

I think when people are talking about rural, they are not talking about the highlands of Scotland, more living in places where the main road connects several small towns and villages. Where you can go 25 miles and not come across a mcdonalds. Where you have to drive 30 miles to a city. Where you have to drive over 15 miles to a supermarket.

That's why it's being mentioned so much. I don't think anyone is using it in terms of living isolated on a hill 10 miles form the nearest neighbour. Just using it to describe somewhere that's not in the slightest bit "urban".

As for your question...what do you do. You moan

Seriously, I'm not sure what you CAN do. Certainly just moving "just like that" isn't usually a realistic option, for all the reasons I've already gone over.

However, other countries seem to cope with oil prices better than we do, in the same way their inflation figures are much lower than ours in Europe apart from Greece. I think it's quite unique to the UK at the moment, with costs soaring, and our own economy, rather than a Euro economy. Were certainly going to have to look at the cost of living in this country, if we wish to remain in any way compettitve.

wotsthat · 19 January 2011 at 11:26AM

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Seriously, I'm not sure what you CAN do. Certainly just moving "just like that" isn't usually a realistic option, for all the reasons I've already gone over.

Everyone moving 'just like that' isn't being suggested and, yes, it wouldn't be realistic.

There are other factors to consider but don't people make these economic decisions every day? When I purchased a house I considered how far it was from work - it's around a 65 mile round trip. The annual cost for fuel to get to work on workdays is just over £3000 and this is more than double what it was when I started the job - my wages haven't doubled so a bigger proportion is spent on fuel now compared to then.

I can save £3000 per year by moving to the town where I work.

Is that £3000 the ONLY consideration I make when determining whether to move or not? No of course not - I don't like the town where I work, the kids are in a decent school near home, house prices are higher where I work and I can't be bothered to move. i.e. I'm willing to pay £3000/ year in fuel to stay put. Turn that £3000 into £6000 and there might be a different outcome.

I don't know why this is such a difficult concept - as the costs associated with travelling to work increase it's likely that people will consider moving closer to work or consider finding a job closer to home. True or false?

I think it's true.

Kohoutek · 19 January 2011 at 5:27PM

Graham_Devon wrote: »

However, other countries seem to cope with oil prices better than we do...

Well, in terms of the effect oil prices have on motoring fuel, the UK copes the best of virtually any country in the world. It's just that we're charged an unusually large amount in tax per each litre of petrol or diesel. In a country like the United States, which has very low taxes of motoring fuel, rises in oil prices have much more dramatic effects on the cost of filling up a vehicle.

easilyparted · 19 January 2011 at 5:59PM

If you have a diesel car you can run it on central heating oil at about half the pump price.
It is illegal of course, but in 25 years of running a diesel car I have never been stopped and had the tank dipped.

Debate House Prices

£1.40 a litre

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