Supply isn't the problem, we have a surplus of housing

lisyloo

There are actually very few empty properties in the UK compared to other European nations.

True, but it's concentrated much more in London where foreign investors have bought up places around Battersea/Nine Elms for example.

In certain places (like St Georges Wharf) the lack of residents is very noticeable.

Conrad

kinger101 wrote: »

Most the people from the continent I know who work here comment on how small and poorly maintained the houses are here.

I know France well and it's a running joke there how Brits are slaves to their homes. In France it's normal to see render falling off, peeling shutters, not that many cultivated gardens and DIY is much less a passion. It's part of the charm of France.


If you watch those 'Home or Abroad' shows even last night they were saying how awfully basic French kitchens are, it's just not their way to have manicured homes. I love the way they just leave bare plaster and all higgledy piggldy plaster / door frame joins.

Conrad

Has Billy Bragg opened his house to the needy? Or is singing silly songs and waving revolutionary banners, the limit of his compassion?







Leftwing Steve Coogan is surely going to be housing a fair few souls eh...

Thrugelmir

cepheus wrote: »

and so it will remain as long as any neo-liberal government remains in power, whatever they are called.

Bedroom tax?

The Bedroom Tax is cruel, it's unfair, and it doesn't work. The Tories claim it's supposed to encourage people to move house, but the vast majority of those affected have nowhere smaller to move to. The average family paying the tax is losing £720 a year – money they can ill afford. And yet there is a real risk that the Bedroom Tax will end up costing the taxpayer more than it saves.

Labour will abolish the Bedroom Tax. Our policy is fully funded, so that it won't lead to any additional borrowing.

Another of Corbyn's U bend turns?

antrobus

lisyloo wrote: »

True, but it's concentrated much more in London where foreign investors have bought up places around Battersea/Nine Elms for example....

Actually, no. The data on empty homes shows that 1.63% of London's housing stock was empty, compared to 3.40% in the North-East. Empty homes are concentrated in the north, rather than the south.

princeofpounds

There are a good number of empty homes in ultra-prime London. It's not just Mayfair either; even traditionally fairly residential parts of Chelsea are now surprisingly dark at night, for instance.


But this is a blip in terms of the number of homes in London, as antrobus said.


The whole UK system of measuring bedrooms is a silly way to calculate house size really; most other countries do it on a sqm or sqft basis and find it strange that we don't know what size our houses actually are. It produces lots of strange effects, such as developers squishing in 'bedrooms' that are really nothing more than walk-in wardrobes or cubby offices.

chewmylegoff

cepheus wrote: »

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/20/ryan-gigs-gary-neville-housing-crisis-property

:T

and so it will remain as long as any neo-liberal government remains in power, whatever they are called.

Presumably you will therefore confirm that you wholly support "bedroom tax" a measure designed to attempt to tackle the issue of under occupancy in social housing.

No....didn't think so.

You can't have it both ways.

chewmylegoff

cepheus wrote: »

I suspect Monbiot has his eye more on the private sector. It sounds perfectly sensible to me, although I would pay more.

If you want to "pay more" then you can already do so. Why not give all of the extra money you are happy to pay to a charity like shelter? No need to wait for the govt to mandate you to do so- if you are willing and able what is stopping you?

Oh...is it because you actually aren't willing to pay more? Gotcha.

Herzlos

Pennywise wrote: »

...most had been sold "off-plan" before the complex was built and that many of the owners have never even been to look at "their investments"!!

It makes you wonder if it's even worth finishing them - when they go to sell any fittings will likely be useless due to age rather than wear.

The savvy builder can presumably make a fortune by just leaving the "off-plan" units empty shells until someone asks them to finish it.

IronWolf

Just have to laugh at the irony and hypocrisy for Cepheus actually calling for a bedroom tax rofl