Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

Capital controls do have benefits but they are always as reported as being bad. When the investors hot money starts to rush out of a stock market the government could impose capital controls to stop the flow.

Frugalsod

greenbee wrote: »

I don't think the government would see it that way. Think of the tax revenue they'd miss out on if house prices dropped and people moved less frequently. Plus they want people to buy our houses and to have money coming into the country.

If you're interested in the topic, there's a whole board dedicated to debate about house prices and the economy.

Lets imagine that house prices did not rise because the government took all the capital gains. Would prices actually move much? Possibly not, but what it would highlight is the other costs of moving. Stamp duty, legal and surveyor fees. People would still move because of work and it would lead to more first time buyers who would possibly move as their family grew or as work demanded. They might actually increase with demographics as first time buyers jumped on the bandwagon. As populations age they would fall off in value.

What most people fail to realise is that price rises of property are inflationary. One that is tolerated because it makes people think that they are great investors. It is bad because banking is skewed towards unproductive property speculation which is ultimately bad for the economy.

Karmacat

GreyQueen wrote: »

charlies-aunt, they probably think that horses should wear nappies when out on the road. A proper country person would be out there with a shovel after that manure. I know I would.

When my mum was little, she lived in a city, and it was still horse and cart time - she and her sister followed the rag and bone man, and scooped up the horse manure as soon as it "fell" Actually, there were still rag and bone men on horse-drawn carts when I was little, but they were a rarity to go and watch, not an everyday occurrence

Living_proof

Karmacat wrote: »

When my mum was little, she lived in a city, and it was still horse and cart time - she and her sister followed the rag and bone man, and scooped up the horse manure as soon as it "fell" Actually, there were still rag and bone men on horse-drawn carts when I was little, but they were a rarity to go and watch, not an everyday occurrence

There is a horse-drawn 'any old iron' cart which comes to my new-build estate one day a month. The guy blows a sort of horn and yells out something I have never yet translated and people know to put all their old washing machines, radiators, etc. at the bottom of their drives. I haven't managed to scoop the poop thus far! I think they may be travellers but they do a very good job of keeping the place clear of rubbish.

thriftwizard

I'm caught between city & country here, in what used to be a small rural market town that's been here forever, but is increasingly becoming a "dormitory" suburb of a big conurbation. We're rapidly losing all our small local businesses as the big guys can afford much higher rents & rates, so are being encouraged by the landlords & the Council. There are twice as many new homes allowed for on our Local Plan than currently exist, but no new schools, surgeries, car parking spaces or other facilities. We have tiny medieval streets that are already clogged with school-run traffic & you can't park in town on Thursdays for well-to-do retirees blowing their pension money on Costa coffees. The trouble is, it came quite high up in the top 10 places to live about 15 years ago...

It was quiet when we moved here 23 years ago, and there were lots of little, interesting & useful local shops & businesses. Virtually all gone now, with the rents doubling year on year, the advent of a biggish upmarket supermarket on our old cricket pitch & an enormous "craft barn" a few miles away. Our street was a happy mixture of young & old, incomers & born-&-bred & our kids grew up playing out with all the others; now all the smaller houses go to up-&-coming young "finance" people who tart them up, taking out all the walls & installing lots of shiny black plastic and run two huge 4x4s each which have to be parked on the road; one car is easily as wide as the house, the other will be parked outside someone else's!

Meanwhile our own kids can't even afford to rent a one-bed flat in the town they call home. The "newbies" complain loudly about chickens, bellringing practice, windfall fruit attracting rats & wasps, mud on the road, jumble sales, allotments, and people who simply won't grow window boxes full petunias in order to win Best Street in Xxx-In-Bloom. They want it to be perfect, so that when they come to sell on to move right out to the roses-round-the-door cottage, they'll get the best possible price.

To give another member of this forum her fair due, there are good people here & plenty of them, both local & incomers, and I suspect that one day, when the supermarkets & big box stores pull out from the "fringes", it will return to being a small but significant bustling market town. But for now, I sometimes think I'd like to move to somewhere more industrial, though I'm rural born & bred (though from further West) just to get away from the "nimby" mindset!

[Deleted User]

The house prices here are eye-watering and any new builds are usually 4 to 5 bedroomed 'executive' developments that are bought by those 'nouveau riche' who come in exodus from the London area having sold a terrace for more money than is good for them and coming here to buy a 5 bed house which is then completely redesigned and usually ghastly and completely inappropriate to the village. It is still a village although there are no boundaries between it and the urban sprawl that is the next village along in any direction, we still do have an identity though and although there are a couple of small supermarkets here we still have a few individual shops most of which are food outlets of some description the latest being a specialist frozen yoghurt/chocolate outlet which I give 6 months at mazimum before they close and go somewhere more populous, our average age here is somewhat over 75! We are now in the position that the village school is full as are all the other schools in the area, the doctors surgeries and dentists are all closed to new patients due to oversubscription and the roads are a nighmare in rush hour, school run time or whenever there is a problem on the motorway which is a couple of miles away, when that happens all the traffic that can exit spills off into this area and we gridlock.The roads are being mostly kept in good condition, at least the main ones, we've been completely re lamp posted and the electricity grid was completely overhauled a couple of years ago with all the pylons being refurbished and the power lines overhauled. But.....and it is a BIG but... the builders still build, the people still move here and we're starting to get people buy huge new build homes as second homes here and that IS causing some resentment as our young people can't even afford the two bedroom terraces and ex local authority houses that come on the market occasionally even the very few flats we have are over £200,000 and most of them are over 55s anyway. Of DD2s junior school year 6 class only 1 woman is still living here and she is with her parents, it's so wrong not to have houses being built that people can afford at the lower end of the market as starter homes and communities will suffer if there are not younger generations growing up and living in them. We will become dormitories for the ageing population and stagnate.

Frugalsod

The problem is the nimby mindset is dominant because they are paranoid about the value of their home. It is all an investment to them. Personally I think cockerels crowing are part of the countryside along with the smell.

moneyistooshorttomention

thriftwizard wrote: »

I'm caught between city & country here, in what used to be a small rural market town that's been here forever, but is increasingly becoming a "dormitory" suburb of a big conurbation. We're rapidly losing all our small local businesses as the big guys can afford much higher rents & rates, so are being encouraged by the landlords & the Council. The
The "newbies" complain loudly about chickens, bellringing practice, windfall fruit attracting rats & wasps, mud on the road, jumble sales, allotments, and people who simply won't grow window boxes full petunias in order to win Best Street in Xxx-In-Bloom. They want it to be perfect, so that when they come to sell on to move right out to the roses-round-the-door cottage, they'll get the best possible price.

To give another member of this forum her fair due, there are good people here & plenty of them, both local & incomers, and I suspect that one day, when the supermarkets & big box stores pull out from the "fringes", it will return to being a small but significant bustling market town. But for now, I sometimes think I'd like to move to somewhere more industrial, though I'm rural born & bred (though from further West) just to get away from the "nimby" mindset!

Swings and roundabouts indeed on all fronts....and its likely the case that many incomers have been pushed out from their own areas (not exactly willingly:() in their turn - and so it all "shoves down the line":cool:.

Chickens - I'm on the lookout - as I'd like to buy some really fresh eggs.


Windfall fruit - very happy to take any off peoples hands - whilst my own fruit is getting established:)

Mud on the road - yep...:(..and lots of other places too:(. By now I've thought "Fed up of getting covered in mud (personally) at regular intervals" and bought myself some wellingtons and extra walking boots and taken to living in jeans even more than previously....As another incomer said to me "There's no point in buying any clothes anyway here - as there's nowhere much where you'd ever wear anything other than jeans...". Yep....scruffs are us these days...

Jumble sales and allotments - bring 'em on:)

Windowboxes = anything except "concrete gardens" and the number of outcrops of Japanese Knotweed (and the couldn't-care-less attitude many who are infected with it have about it:eek::mad::eek:). Only too glad to see a proper cared-for garden of any description.....:cool:

Local food producers - supporting them as much as my income allows (errrm....rather more than my present income allows in fact...:cool:). They do some rather nice local cheese and fish around here....

Community generally - out there generally "doing my bit" and volunteering for various things.

.............and we all hate "second homers" (locals and incomers alike).

greenbee

Frugalsod wrote: »

The problem is the nimby mindset is dominant because they are paranoid about the value of their home. It is all an investment to them. Personally I think cockerels crowing are part of the countryside along with the smell.

My dad used to tolerate the cockerels until they started waking him up earlier than he felt was civilised. They were then relocated to the oven via the freezer...

MTSM - if you live in a rural area, decent wellies are a must. I tend to wear wellies from about October-April (or June, based on yesterday's weather...), and walking boots or sandals the rest of the time. Like you, I was forced out of my own local area - in my case by the need to find employment.

Our incomers are mostly OK. The younger ones are making a huge effort to fit in - many of them do have local connections, even if not from the village itself. It tends to be the older ones who've retired here that are problematic. I haven't washed my car for 6 months as I don't see the point... that and the fact that my washing line is visible from outside the boundary of my property causes a certain amount of chuntering...:cool:

thriftwizard

You're supposed to wash cars? Oooh 'eck... that explains why they've gone brown!