housing issues affecting the young

chewmylegoff

Kohoutek wrote: »

It's a good idea in principle, but these sites don't sound particularly attractive, for example a former hospital site would be subject to a lengthly and expensive decontamination process.

As for a former colliery - the developers must be queuing up! :rotfl:

i'd rather live in any of those places or even on site of a decommissioned nuclear power station than live on a housing estate in tower hamlets!!

Loughton_Monkey

The under 25's are getting on for being two generations below mine.

The generation below me - as a generalisation - grew up in [what appeared to be] more affluent times, in which money was assumed to be easily made, and in times when saving dwindled to be replaced by far higher borrowing to feed the "must have it now...." appetite.

This, I think, is severely affecting the offspring of the above, who have also had to cope with lowering educational standards.

For a whole lot of complex reasons - adding together - there has been a huge change in behaviours. Whereas in my day, ability (or not) to pay rent would have been fully analysed and evaluated before moving away from home, today, it seems not to be. This would also go for a car, too. My wife and I were almost 30 before we bought our first (very second hand car).

Sometimes I feel I would just love to be a fly on the wall at the CAB in these cases. Of course I fully expect some of them to be heart-rendering. But I strongly suspect that the majority of them can be summarised as problems very largely of their own making - due to choices which 'common sense' would have told most of us to avoid?

olly300

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Sometimes I feel I would just love to be a fly on the wall at the CAB in these cases. Of course I fully expect some of them to be heart-rendering. But I strongly suspect that the majority of them can be summarised as problems very largely of their own making - due to choices which 'common sense' would have told most of us to avoid?

It's very easy to make judgements about young people but you have to remember that due to changes in housing policy and mental health policy more people that would have been deemed incapable of looking after themselves and put in institutions are now left to fend for themselves.

Anyway one good thing is now lots of local councils are now telling people the truth about housing waiting lists i.e. you will never get social housing.

Pupnik

PasturesNew wrote: »

When I was about 19 I had an older friend who had a good job ... and she had a 1-bed flat, that she shared with a flatmate. They shared a bedroom... and when I stayed over I also shared the same bedroom. That was all perfectly normal.

And yes, it had single glazed, draughty windows, an old cooker, threadbare carpets and no central heating - just a 2-bar electric heater on the wall of the living room.

Oh how posh it all seemed that she had her own place.

The Landlord was Cambridge University Estates Dept.

A lot of rental properties aren't much better these days either. I like the flat I am in now but it has no central heating (doesn't matter, we have jumpers), no washing machine (doesn't matter, we wash in the sink and go to the laundrette for big stuff), the cooker is probably at LEAST 30 years old, probably more (looks a lot like my grandad's and he has had that as long as I can remember) and this is far and away the nicest flat we found in our pricerange. When I was in student housing we had single glazed windows that were bolted shut, no extractor fan I in the carpeted bathroom- you can imagine the mushrooms we grew! At least our landlords were nice though- some student friends reported their broken shower to their landlord and were told 'well you have a sink, don't you?' :rotfl:

I think it is tough for young people today because the house price/ salary ratio is so out of whack but I think in a lot of cases they do not make it easy for themselves. I have plenty of 20 something friends who drive nice cars, party hard on the weekends, buy all the latest gadgets and complain that they can't afford to save for a deposit!

vivatifosi

I've been having a ferret about. The Crown Estate land in Hemel Hempstead is farmland to the north east of the town in an area called Spencers Park, plan is for 350 houses of which 1/2 will be "affordable housing" (I always find it a little odd that by default the other half must be unaffordable housing). In Tower Hamlets it may be the "Robin Hood Gardens" redevelopment, with plans for 1600 homes. Oh, hang on a tick, here's an article outlining all of them:

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2011/03/31/first-build-now-pay-later-housing-schemes-unveiled/