Tory council leader believes ‘basic salary’ is 80k

CLAPTON

MrsE wrote: »

I'm also public sector & do a complex responsible job for minimal renumeration......

Anyway the problem in this country is, the average wage doesn't buy an average house, in most of the country, it doesn't buy any house:(

a couple, both on the average wage, can buy an average priced house, in most parts of the country

MrsE_2

CLAPTON wrote: »

a couple, both on the average wage, can buy an average priced house, in most parts of the country

This is 2012, there are alot of one parent families, women & men not automatically marrying in their early 20s to leave their parents, broken marriages & relationships.
I'm not sure but I think I may have read a greater % are not in a live together relationship than are, if I'm wrong on that I'm willing to bet its a larger % than ever.
You cant justify the housing v wage problem by saying you need a partner to buy with. People need a home if they are single too.

AndyGuil

MrsE wrote: »

This is 2012, there are alot of one parent families, women & men not automatically marrying in their early 20s to leave their parents, broken marriages & relationships.
I'm not sure but I think I may have read a greater % are not in a live together relationship than are, if I'm wrong on that I'm willing to bet its a larger % than ever.
You cant justify the housing v wage problem by saying you need a partner to buy with. People need a home if they are single too.

This is one of the main reasons why there is a renting market. For those that can't afford to buy (amongst other reasons as well). Buying as a couple is the easiest route to home ownership.

MrsE_2

AndyGuil wrote: »

This is one of the main reasons why there is a renting market. For those that can't afford to buy (amongst other reasons as well). Buying as a couple is the easiest route to home ownership.

But is it right that a single person on an avarage wage has virtually no hope of buying their own home?

CLAPTON

MrsE wrote: »

This is 2012, there are alot of one parent families, women & men not automatically marrying in their early 20s to leave their parents, broken marriages & relationships.
I'm not sure but I think I may have read a greater % are not in a live together relationship than are, if I'm wrong on that I'm willing to bet its a larger % than ever.
You cant justify the housing v wage problem by saying you need a partner to buy with. People need a home if they are single too.

People may need somewhere to live but two people working together to buy a property will be able to buy a better property than a single person (individual incomes being equal).

Single people on average earnings will have to buy something which costs less than two people on average earning:

LydiaJ

MrsE wrote: »

This is 2012, there are alot of one parent families, women & men not automatically marrying in their early 20s to leave their parents, broken marriages & relationships.
I'm not sure but I think I may have read a greater % are not in a live together relationship than are, if I'm wrong on that I'm willing to bet its a larger % than ever.
You cant justify the housing v wage problem by saying you need a partner to buy with. People need a home if they are single too.

Indeed. Single adult households inevitably have lower than average household earnings unless the single adult is earning a lot more than average wage. However, a childless single adult does not need a family home to live in, so such a person on average earnings should be able to afford somewhere big enough to live alone, unless they're in London.

Single parents, of course, have the worst of both worlds, needing family-sized accommodation but only having one income. If you are a single parent (and I'm one, so I'm not getting at you) then this feels very unfair. But what could be done about it? Restrict couples buying houses to getting mortgages based on only one salary? That would put single parents on a more level playing field, but it would hardly be "fair" to the couples. There are lots of ways in which life is "unfair" for single parents, and that sucks, I'm afraid.

PS The "average earnings ought to afford average house price" thing is a red herring. The only way average earnings would enable you to buy an average house would be in a society where everyone owned. In real societies where not everyone owns, "average house price" will always be calculated from a richer chunk of the population than average earnings.

cepheus

ukcarper wrote: »

But only 20% of people in central London earn over £52,870

irrelevant anyway, since he was referring to basic and first job. Give him a uniform, silly hat, and ask "now can you say do you wan't fries with that?" hired! It would do the Tories a world of good. Call it seeing how the other half live.

BTW I bet salary statistics don't include unpaid internships.

AndyGuil

MrsE wrote: »

But is it right that a single person on an avarage wage has virtually no hope of buying their own home?

Thwy are competing in a market which sets its prices according to what people can pay. A couple is clearly at an advantage here and a single earner is unlikely to be able compete. This is hard to change unless they ban shared home ownership. Home ownership is an obsession mostly exclusive to the UK.

MrsE_2

LydiaJ wrote: »

Indeed. Single adult households inevitably have lower than average household earnings unless the single adult is earning a lot more than average wage. However, a childless single adult does not need a family home to live in, so such a person on average earnings should be able to afford somewhere big enough to live alone, unless they're in London.

Single parents, of course, have the worst of both worlds, needing family-sized accommodation but only having one income. If you are a single parent (and I'm one, so I'm not getting at you) then this feels very unfair. But what could be done about it? Restrict couples buying houses to getting mortgages based on only one salary? That would put single parents on a more level playing field, but it would hardly be "fair" to the couples. There are lots of ways in which life is "unfair" for single parents, and that sucks, I'm afraid.

PS The "average earnings ought to afford average house price" thing is a red herring. The only way average earnings would enable you to buy an average house would be in a society where everyone owned. In real societies where not everyone owns, "average house price" will always be calculated from a richer chunk of the population than average earnings.

In London, the south east & the home counties 3 x the average wage wont buy anything more than a garage, it may (may) stretch to a mobile home in some areas.
Thats the most populated part of the uk.
So singletons will struggle to house themselves in any sized accommodation.

Plus 3 x the average wage is out of reach to many vital services in these areas, bin collectors, road sweepers, hospital cleaners & catering staff, school playgroup supervisors & school dinner ladies, bus drivers, post officer workers, all of these are vital services, but even as a couple getting on the property ladder will be out of their reach in lots of these areas.

Fella

Yawn nu-labor propaganda. They've been desperately peddling the "tories are out of touch" line for ages now, presumably hoping that if they repeat it often enough we'll forget that it was the millionaire Ed Milliband who architected many of the policies that bankrupted the UK.