London Housing Shortage -Long distance commuters push up prices elsewhere

lisyloo

Lifes too short to spend it in a tin can

I do a lot more walking in London than I do in Wiltshire where the public transport is poor. Most of us do have to work though and getting there is something we have no choice but to endure.
There are loads more choices in London.

what ever happened to home working?

My sister cuts the grass on verges and keeps the public park tidy.
She's always joking about working from home :-)

Doesn't work for any tradespeople, shop workers, restaurant staff, doctors, dentists etc.

I'm an office worker but our company like us to go in 2 days a week for "collaboration" puposes.

What about comapnies moving out of London?
The problem for my company is existing staff who have 20 years knowledge, so we wouldn't want to lose lots of knowledgeable key people.

onlyroz

padington wrote: »

This is where Brompton bikes become really handy. The bike made in and for London.

I was going to say the same thing. There is nowhere in central London more than a few miles from a mainline train station, and therefore a 15 minute max bike ride. No need at all to endure the tube. And if you don't want a Brompton then the Boris Bikes are everywhere.

michaels

5 minutes to station (DW gives me a lift) max 5 min wait for a train, 30 min on AC train, 3 mins to district/circle line, less than 2 min wait for a fairly empty train some with AC, 7 mins on train and 2 min walk to office inc lift (then 20 min wait to boot pc and log on but that is the civil service cost saving on IT for you)

However it costs a fortune....

AndyGuil

The S Stock underground trains are available on some lines already with more coming. They have AC.

AliceBanned

wotsthat wrote: »

My advice would be to live and work in the Midlands but earn London wages.

You don't need to live as far away as the Midlands to get affordable housing on an average wage.

AliceBanned

This is welcome news. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-28680186

AliceBanned

onlyroz wrote: »

I was going to say the same thing. There is nowhere in central London more than a few miles from a mainline train station, and therefore a 15 minute max bike ride. No need at all to endure the tube. And if you don't want a Brompton then the Boris Bikes are everywhere.

The Boris Bikes are good, but for daily commute a folding bike is probably better. Sometimes the bikes are not available or at the end of a long day the docking stations are full, and then missing a train home due to trying to find a dock is annoying. I believe they are expanding the number of bikes and docking stations, but there aren't enough for them to be relied on. I used to use them, for over a year, and I would say 1/5 times there was no bike or dock.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

wymondham wrote: »

, if home working took off it would reduce hot spots of expensive housing?

Yes.

As would moving large employers out of London.

Government being one of the biggest.....

If the Capital of the UK, parliament, and all govt departments were moved to a new city in the geographic centre of the UK, we'd solve a lot of problems.

vivatifosi

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Yes.

As would moving large employers out of London.

Government being one of the biggest.....

If the Capital of the UK, parliament, and all govt departments were moved to a new city in the geographic centre of the UK, we'd solve a lot of problems.

That would be great. However it will seem slightly strange when London gets into a huff and calls for independence as "Wolverhampton just doesn't take our views into account".

buglawton

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Interesting article in the FT showing the scale of the housing shortage in London/South East, and supply and demand in action as long distance London commuters are now driving up prices much further afield than they used to.

There are now almost 800,000 long distance London commuters coming in from other parts of the country, rather than just the outskirts of London.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2a3f2e50-1996-11e4-8730-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz39L6egY1Z

You need an FT account (8 free page views per month) to see the article in the link. Though it doesn't say much you could not have guessed, as in, Pope not a Protestant.