Boris announces new housing scheme

morg_monster

you say "people earning under 72,000" - is that the earnings limit for just one person or for a couple? EG I agree with the poster who said that is a lot - even for london - surely a person earning £72,000 can afford to buy something normally even in London.
A couple earning up to £72,000 together seems more reasonable. but still it is a lot - for example me and my OH fall into this bracket in London but I wouldn't have ever thought of us being able to get on a scheme like this - but I guess when you take into account a couple of kids that is where this kind of thing is needed.
other things I'd be interested to know - whereabouts in london will these new builds be located? Just inner london or also greater?
It does sound like a good idea on paper. As someone said above I doubt Boris thought of it ;-) as I recall from the elections last year he promised a lot less affordable housing than Ken or Brian did.

Sir_Humphrey

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The 72k is just the top cap.

Around 70k is the average salary in London though, according to statistics.gov.uk.

Mere 16k here is outr average

70k ought to be enough in London, certainly so by 2010-2011.

I can't help thinking that if Central govt had suggested this, it would be dismissed here as a gimmick (which it is). For instance, how are these houses valued? Sounds like a prop for the builders rather than a meaningful way of housing the poor.

Graham_Devon

morg_monster wrote: »

you say "people earning under 72,000" - is that the earnings limit for just one person or for a couple? EG I agree with the poster who said that is a lot - even for london - surely a person earning £72,000 can afford to buy something normally even in London.
A couple earning up to £72,000 together seems more reasonable. but still it is a lot - for example me and my OH fall into this bracket in London but I wouldn't have ever thought of us being able to get on a scheme like this - but I guess when you take into account a couple of kids that is where this kind of thing is needed.
other things I'd be interested to know - whereabouts in london will these new builds be located? Just inner london or also greater?
It does sound like a good idea on paper. As someone said above I doubt Boris thought of it ;-) as I recall from the elections last year he promised a lot less affordable housing than Ken or Brian did.

I don't know. States "income".

The homes are aimed at first-time buyers and will be available to those with an annual income of less than £72,000. Crucially, buyers do not have to be key workers.

The key workers thing was always an issue, limiting it to certain people. This seems much fairer all around.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23656530-details/Hire-purchase+plan+to+help+Londoners+on+to+property+ladder/article.do

chewmylegoff

all these nonsense schemes really annoy me.

people should only buy houses if they can afford to. if they cannot afford to buy houses they shouldn't. they should use the options that are open to them: renting or social housing.

schemes like this are just a stupid excuse to try to not provide proper social housing.

on the income point, £72k is not particularly high for a joint income, given that the average london salary is now supposedly £40k+.

chewmylegoff

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The key workers thing was always an issue, limiting it to certain people. This seems much fairer all around.

the key worker thing was an abject failure as all the properties were too expensive for "key workers" to buy (not surprising - since when has one teacher's salary been enough to fund a mortgage).

the result was that key workers' properties were bought by teachers who were married to stockbrokers.

bo_drinker

I can't take Boris seriously yet. He wouldn't have thought of this on his own.This sounds like the old style council housing / Thatcher sell off from back in the day. Great if the money stays in the pot, as we know it didn't last time.

IveSeenTheLight

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The 72k is just the top cap.

Around 70k is the average salary in London though, according to statistics.gov.uk.

Mere 16k here is outr average

I think you have your figures wrong.
According to statistic.gov.uk (below) the average median wage in London is £28,105 or as a mean £34,661.

Even if you took the high specific area of City of Londonthe average median wage is £44,871 or as a mean £56,953.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_labour/ASHE_2008/tab7_1a.xls

zag2me

chewmylegoff wrote: »

the key worker thing was an abject failure as all the properties were too expensive for "key workers" to buy (not surprising - since when has one teacher's salary been enough to fund a mortgage).

Not really a failure, I got my place on the key worker scheme(even though I am not a key worker) and think its brilliant. Its cheaper than privately renting the same place by about £200 a month. I see that as a success

chewmylegoff

zag2me wrote: »

Not really a failure, I got my place on the key worker scheme(even though I am not a key worker) and think its brilliant. Its cheaper than privately renting the same place by about £200 a month. I see that as a success

well that's good for you, but since the scheme was intended to provide housing for key workers, and you're not a key worker, the scheme hasn't met its objectives and has therefore failed.

not that "key workers" should be buying houses they can't afford in the first place, mind.

whathavewedone

Leave poor Boris alone! I think he's a lot brighter than he appears. It's just his bumbling public school persona. I quite like him. So do a lot of Londoners it seems..