The value of the British Pound

lstar337

takman wrote: »

I'm not saying immigration shouldn't be controlled but I just think that while it is at such a high rate then it should be used to justify a massive increase in house building and infrastructure.

But you seemed to be arguing to stay in the EU? We couldn't have controlled migration within the EU.

It's all well and good building houses like the clappers (heaven knows I would love to see a truly affordable house on the market in my area), but with free migration they will be snapped up as quickly as they are built! Continuing the cycle of pushing natives out of the housing market!

Less than 30 years ago my parents bought their first house for £18,000. Now I would be lucky to find a house for 10x that value in the same area, and I earn only a little more than they did back then!

I guess I'll be renting my whole life.:(

lstar337

joncombe wrote: »

The issue is that many people assume that undeveloped land is unused, it isn't. Britain is already a net importer of food. Most of the undeveloped land is used for food production (either growing of crops or grazing of animals) or is unsuitable for such uses. Developing this land means we have a larger population to feed and less land on which to produce food. Look at aerial photos of most of England for instance and you will see fields. Not large areas of wilderness.

Excellent point I was about to make next. Where I live there appears to be oodles of free land, but it is actually farmland. When it isn't filled with animals or crops, its flooded!

Jibeddy

takman wrote: »

96% of the country is undeveloped!. That means only 4% of the country has things built on it so the argument of the country being "full" is not very valid.

The problem with lack of housing is simply because there are not enough houses being built. Almost every time a new housing development is planned people start to protest against it and use your argument that "all green space" is being built on, when this is simply not true!.

Plus having some unskilled workers is good for the economy and generally unskilled immigrants who just want to get money to send home are happy to do any job. In reality nobody dreams to be a bin man or a toilet cleaner so people avoid these kinds of minimum wage jobs. But to an immigrant the minimum wage may be a lot of money and when they don't care what work they do they will take all the unpopular jobs.

If people don't want these jobs then the way to solve this is by paying people more money to do it, not by importing cheap labour. Otherwise you end up with a race to the bottom on wages.

jimjames

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Exchange rate is no different to the period 2009-2011. No one made a fuss then. Just got on with it. Currencies have always fluctuated.

That's just not true. Dollar is at levels last seen in 1985 but we also neared parity that year.


Petrol seems to be going up a couple of pence every time I fill at the moment, dollar drop finally catching up.

PeacefulWaters

If you look at a map of Europe lit up at night it is clear that the UK is one of the most densely populated nations.

Those arguing that we should simply build more should surely be arguing that other nations with more space build more. And house economic migrants where there is more space.

ScotinLondon

Jibeddy wrote: »

If people don't want these jobs then the way to solve this is by paying people more money to do it, not by importing cheap labour. Otherwise you end up with a race to the bottom on wages.

However, even if the wages are increased for these types of jobs - it doesn't necessarily mean that the indigenous people will want to do these jobs. So what happens then? Inward immigration only started because no-one wants to do these jobs. Plus if all it took was an increase in wages - then all costs would go up - council tax, food prices etc But if supermarkets want to keeps costs down - then it will be the producers that will suffer even more, as they would be able to hold onto a viable business.

And so it goes on and on...

lstar337

ScotinLondon wrote: »

Inward immigration only started because no-one wants to do these jobs.

Really? That was the sole reason? I find that hard to believe.

So all these Europeans grow up with aspirations of being cleaners and sewage workers? If there were more crappy low paid jobs in their own countries they would simply stay put?

Bloomberg

lstar337 wrote: »

But you seemed to be arguing to stay in the EU? We couldn't have controlled migration within the EU.

It's all well and good building houses like the clappers (heaven knows I would love to see a truly affordable house on the market in my area), but with free migration they will be snapped up as quickly as they are built! Continuing the cycle of pushing natives out of the housing market!

Less than 30 years ago my parents bought their first house for £18,000. Now I would be lucky to find a house for 10x that value in the same area, and I earn only a little more than they did back then!

I guess I'll be renting my whole life.:(

The uncontrolled influx of migrant workers has been a hammer blow for the working man. Your post is bang on the money.

Bloomberg

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

If you look at a map of Europe lit up at night it is clear that the UK is one of the most densely populated nations.

Those arguing that we should simply build more should surely be arguing that other nations with more space build more. And house economic migrants where there is more space.

Exactly, we cannot build houses fast enough to cope with the influx. Richard Branson said that we should stay in Europe. What do people like him know about struggling to buy a house or find a school place?. Almost invariably the ones who want to stay in Europe are well off or rich. As much as I respect and admire Branson I feel that he was a little bit out of touch.

Bloomberg

lstar337 wrote: »

Really? That was the sole reason? I find that hard to believe.

So all these Europeans grow up with aspirations of being cleaners and sewage workers? If there were more crappy low paid jobs in their own countries they would simply stay put?

Pre 2004 we had people doing so called menial jobs. The reason why migrants flock here is because of the massive wage disparity between east and west. For example the average wage here is about nine times that of certain eastern block countries. How Labour came to the conclusion that less than fifteen thousand people a year would come here annually is beyond me.