People should buy a house to live in

avantra

Peter Hargreaves

Some words of old wisdom from an old hand.

mbga9pgf

100% Correct.

twadge_face

Bit simple.

spuds_2

He says: 'We needed a recession but we needed it seven years ago, as a recession puts a hand of caution on governments and consumers who carried on spending and consuming.'

I agree - if the brakes had been applied to the housing market and the throwing around of credit seven years ago, we wouldn't be in as bad a state now.

leveller2911

!!!!!!_face wrote: »

Bit simple.

Really?? In what way?.......

We are an island, we have finite land ,why should people own a "portfolio" of houses? if we had a surplus I could understand it,but we don't.

Particularly in the last 10yrs people borrowed against the perceived value of the house they did own to buy more and thus the poor old FTB got shafted because they couldnt compete.
The vast majority of the general public would love to own a "HOME" and stamp thier identity on it, but what we have had is nothing short of GREED and on a major scale.
I blame BTL but also the 2nd home owners who buy a house for the weekend,in the country ,generally speaking they are not contributing anything to the town or village and that is partly why in my area we have lost so many local shops and pubs.
The government had the oppotunity to hammer 2nd homeowners (rightfully so) with tax etc but they didn't and yet another NU Labour !!!!-up always a reactive government instead of pro-active....BUY A HOME ....................NOT FOR PROFIT !!!!!

lostinrates

leveller2911 wrote: »

I blame BTL but also the 2nd home owners who buy a house for the weekend,in the country ,generally speaking they are not contributing anything to the town or village and that is partly why in my area we have lost so many local shops and pubs.
The government had the oppotunity to hammer 2nd homeowners (rightfully so) with tax etc but they didn't and yet another NU Labour !!!!-up always a reactive government instead of pro-active....

In my area there are a fair few business that rely heavily on weekenders and holiday makers. Some are what FC123 describes as ''lifestyle'' shops, many are ''gastropubs'' or restaurants. Our vilage has a reasonable mix of weekenders and full time residents, and its often the ''incomers'' who contribute most financially and the ''weekday widows'' and retired who donate a lot of time .

honved

This snippet is interesting as well:

Hargreaves asserts that he hates 'politicians with a vengeance'. He adds: 'I don't think Cameron has any more answers than Brown.'

bo_drinker

honved wrote: »

This snippet is interesting as well:

Hargreaves asserts that he hates 'politicians with a vengeance'. He adds: 'I don't think Cameron has any more answers than Brown.'

My thoughts exactly, well done Mr Hargreaves :T

leveller2911

lostinrates wrote: »

In my area there are a fair few business that rely heavily on weekenders and holiday makers. Some are what FC123 describes as ''lifestyle'' shops, many are ''gastropubs'' or restaurants. Our vilage has a reasonable mix of weekenders and full time residents, and its often the ''incomers'' who contribute most financially and the ''weekday widows'' and retired who donate a lot of time .

Sadly thats not the case in my area.Not sure how "incomers" contribute most financially though,if someone comes down to their "weekend pad" for one or two weekends a month (I work on a few properties are your lucky if you see them from one month to the next) they aren't contributing as much, for one thing they can get 50% council tax rebate,The government in their wisdom gave councils the power to charge 2nd homeowners up to 100% for coucil tax, but for some bizarre reason my district and county council only charge them 50% and thuse are contibuting less.
I'm not a N.I.M.B.Y , I was born 10 miles from where I live.I dont have any problem with people moving but they should live there full time

lostinrates

leveller2911 wrote: »

Sadly thats not the case in my area.Not sure how "incomers" contribute most financially though,if someone comes down to their "weekend pad" for one or two weekends a month (I work on a few properties are your lucky if you see them from one month to the next) they aren't contributing as much, for one thing they can get 50% council tax rebate,The government in their wisdom gave councils the power to charge 2nd homeowners up to 100% for coucil tax, but for some bizarre reason my district and county council only charge them 50% and thuse are contibuting less.
I'm not a N.I.M.B.Y , I was born 10 miles from where I live.I dont have any problem with people moving but they should live there full time

Most here come pretty much every weekend. There are quit e few (like my dad and DH) who are here weekends, but wives are here full time.

Weekenders here often eat out once a week at least, often socially. They also contribute generously (often seemingly competitively) to village/parish events. e.g. donating things for raffles. Our last year summer fete, for example, took several thousand pounds, lots of very generous raffle gifts. Lifestyle shops don't tend to appeal (and/or outprice) a lot of lower income locals (or people who have the real deal life: they don't tend to buy antiqud milk pails ), but weekenders flock to them They also sometimes employ locally (gardeners/cleaners etc). They have fostered local ''cultural'' events and spport local boutiques etc. While they work long hours week days in the City they shop and spend at weekends. They also keep a lot of things going that IMO would otherwise end through lack of support here. Half our cricket team are part time/weekend residents, and few of the bell pullers. While generally, the local farmers cut hedges the weekenders pay people to lay the hedges and repair drystone walls. In many ways they are considerable input to the local economy here. On the other hand, I wouldn't disagree that some incomers have had coniderable impact on house prices I expect: but it would be the same or worse if they had only the one home here I imagine, and could push prices twice as high! We are one of the few area that has a lot of local independant shops, partly because people want to live the ''rural idyll'' life and support the rural idyll businesses. My very nearest large village has only one non independant (a seven eleven type store) and a bank., in the other direction we do have three supermarkets: two national chains and an independant ''supermarket'' but the highstreet there is mainly independants too: and a lot that the local economy, out of comfortable short commute to any major city, would not easily support.

All that said, I recognise this is not the picture everywhere,

When I return to work I will have to be rurally located, for DH t work he has to be in the city: blanket rules of ''having to live in one place only'' don't suit all circumstances! We'll likely be in a situation where dh rents or eventually buy in London, whileour home is somewhere he couldn't commute from. Effectively, thats good for local economy: his London income will be going predominantly into local community.

I would agree, council tax should be fully payable though: I presume for houses being lived in almost every weekend they are.

leveller2911

I understand what you say Lostinrates and it seems to work in some areas.
Sadly it doesn't here,people buy here from London , London wages are far more than here and the young in this area can't compete anywhere near with them with house buying.
We have had people move into the area and don't want to mix, they don't want to talk or chat etc.
We have had people complaining about cows being noisy en-route to milking (not many milking cows left but they still complain).Lastly in a small town not too far away where I do a lot of work, people have moved in and any planning applications that are submitted to bring business to the town they are the first to object,purely because it will change the "historic,idylic town we moved into"........ Im sure not everywhere is like this but sadly it is here...