pressure today.

thorsoak

ska_lover wrote: »

It seems clear to me that the issues are almost entirely down to immigration. It is not a racist thing (as I don't care where they come from) more of a factual mathematic working out of our economy V's the amount of people that it now needs to support - and then compare that to the 60's. Incomparable. In the 70's they started flooding in, and it hasn't stopped since.

Councils have less houses to give out and benefits have to be so much more stringent with rules and regulations these days due to the people who are out to rip them off in some way

I don't think people want more (material possessions) than they did 30/40 years ago -no one I know has great expectations for this kind of stuff but most folk just want the same basic things - a place to live - and buying a house is an unrealistic dream for most people - even when both members of a couple are working

My parents definately it easier than me and my siblings do, - I think they had to wait six weeks for their first council house - nowadays it would be more like six years - or longer. It took both me and my husband working full time saving for almost five years to get a house deposit together - whilst paying extortionate prices of private renting.

I do think that in the UK, you are worse off and on occasion feel demoralised the harder you work and the more you try to be a decent citizen. The system is not set to reward hard work - just further tax your wages whilst letting so many immigrants in to further precious resources away from our children and future generations.

Then there are our kids, what real future is there for them? You bring them up to work hard etc, but nothing guarantees them getting a job even these days.

In the UK, the only time that house building has matched demand, and kept housing affordable, was when councils built in huge volumes from the 1950s to 1970s. During this time it was possible for tenants to buy their houses at a discount, but the funds from these sales allowed the councils to replace/rebuild more homes. But when the conservatives expanded that right to buy council houses in the 1980s, they took away the ability of the council to replace the housing stock that was sold. This - not immigration - has caused the shortage of local authority housing.

balletshoes

I think the expectation around housing etc has changed since the 1960s.

Thats my parents generation, they were young adults then, just married and starting a family. They were (and are) working class, and we didn't know anyone who owned their own home or had a mortgage when I was growing up. Everyone rented (or in the farming communities, lived in tied houses). It wasn't until I was around 10, and a new housing scheme was being built in our nearest town, that I realised that you could buy your home.

In the early 80s, when I became a young adult, social housing was still available but was starting to be sold off at rock-bottom prices to existing tenants. That was when the message in the UK was "an Englishman's home is his castle, and everyone can be a homeowner" - if you wanted to pay 15% interest on your mortgage payments! Thats when the aspiration to be a homeowner became more the norm, in my opinion. Because I clearly remember a time, as an adult, where it wasn't the majority of adults who were, or aspired to be homeowners, I don't really understand the issue with not being a homeowner nowadays. However, I had experience of being both a social housing tenant, and a private rental tenant, and I had no problems with either type of tenancy, at all.

balletshoes

FatVonD wrote: »

I do remember bumping into a girl from school on the train home one night in the '70s and, as we went through Battersea, she pointed out her council flat to me. She had got it by queueing at the council offices when they were handing out flats that had been vandalised and you could get one, (only the one they offered you), even as a non-priority case, if you queued and were prepared to clean it up yourself.

that still happens now - it was one of the documentaries not that long ago. I think its a great idea.

neverdespairgirl

FatVonD wrote: »

However, unlike nowadays, I didn't expect to go from my family home to my own flat (rented or otherwise) and spent many years living in bedsits and flatshares.

When I bought my first flat (aged 21) with a boyfriend we both borrowed money for a deposit as you couldn't buy without at least a 10% deposit. Interest rates were high and our mortgage and bills swallowed all of my wages and then we lived on his wages day to day. When we split up and I took on the mortgage on my own I got a second job and lived on the wages from that.

I don't know anyone, from school / uni / early working days who ever thought it remotely possible to go from family home to own flat / house, unless they stayed living with parents until they were well into their 20s.

Everyone in London shares flats in late teens / early 20s, up to mid 20s and into their 30s, it's just how people live. Accommodation is so very expensive that there's no alternative, even if you're earning a good salary.

OH and I moved into our flat aged 20 (me) and 19 (him) but we had flatmates until we were 27 / 26, just before our son was born.

notanewuser

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I don't know anyone, from school / uni / early working days who ever thought it remotely possible to go from family home to own flat / house, unless they stayed living with parents until they were well into their 20s.

Not London, but I never flat shared. I lived with a boyfriend from age 17-19, then bought my own house. Lived there alone for 4 years before getting a rental flat in London during the week (alone for first 3 years). I kept the house until a year after I married my husband, and we bought a house together.

My sister never flat shared either. She bought her first London flat at 25 having rented alone for 2 years.

neverdespairgirl

In the area of London where I live, you can rent a 3 bed flat for about £450 a week upwards, nothing much below that.

1 bed flats start at about £280 a week and go up from there.

So share a 3 bed flat with 2 other people, and you pay lower bills, less council tax and a significantly lower rent per week.

BritAbroad

I think pressures vary from one generation to the next, but also some are pressures that we choose to put on ourselves.

For example, a friend of mine chooses to rent, despite having a job with a six-figure salary (not in London). Her reasoning is that she doesn't want the hassle and costs associated with owning a property, and that she'd rather take the risk of having to move regularly (she travels a lot with work anyway and is a fairly minimalist person so doesn't see it as a big deal). I can see her point when the plumbing's gone awry, the place needs decorated and there's some electrical work needing doing, as has been the case in my house. But despite that, I wouldn't want to be in rented. Different strokes for different folks.

Having children creates pressure for people, but is also a choice. Again it's about deciding whether the benefits outweigh the pressures created. I decided it wasn't worth it but other people will make a different choice.

I do feel under pressure just now because of circumstances outwit my control. I also know though that the situation will evolve though and those pressures will get better in time - probably to be replaced with something else!

Caroline_a

I agree with the different types of pressure from one generation to the next. When my children were young we had no help in the form of family credit. I remember my husband being out of work for a short time, I was offered a job but was told that I would only see £4 of my wage as they would take the rest off my husband's dole!

Additionally, weddings these days seem to have fallen off the planet in terms of what young people expect. I remember my bridesmaids dresses came from British Home Stores (!), pretty summer dresses rather than the long heavy velvet options in the bridal shops. Add the cost of all the American imports, favours, showers, vast swathes of flowers at the venue, church, etc - we had buttonholes for the men, a bouquet for me, posies for the bridesmaids and corsages for the mothers. The total cost of the wedding was around a week's wage for both of us!

I do think though that there was a lot less of the 'poor me' attitude that is seen a lot now. If things were tough we had been taught that, tough, you had to get on with it. Women rarely had their nails done/beauty treatments etc, and a spa was something that old people went to to 'take the waters'! No gyms for us, we kept fit (and good lord was I slim then!) with keeping active, walking a lot - no jobs apart from checkout girls were sedentary as they are now.

Better? Different more like.

red_devil

Its going to get harder to get a house from today, they are vetting mortgage applications now.

i think expectations are lower today, how many parents expect their kids to get married, stay married and have a house. It was the norm once but not amymore.

thorsoak

Mortgage were extremely hard to get in the early 1960s ....you had to be saving with a building society for at least 12 months before you would even be considered for an interview with the Manager of the Building Society who would interrogate (sorry interview) you regarding your application! (And until late 1960s, women's wages weren't even taken into consideration!)