Central issue in politics not Brexit but Housing

cepheus

This might partly explain why Labour support in London has surged. They are expected to do well in the forthcoming council elections in May

The central issue in British politics is not, as you might have thought, Brexit. It's housing.

New analysis shows that Britain's long-festering housing shortages contributed to the 2017 election that cost the Conservatives their majority. While Brexit divisions cut across party lines, Britain's housing problems overwhelmingly benefit Labour. Now, it seems the government may finally be grasping the extent of the problem. “Young people without family wealth are ‘right to be angry’ at not being able to buy a home,” said Prime Minister Theresa May Monday in a speech focused on housing.

westernpromise

It's hilarious. Labour wrecks the global economy so that we get 10 years of emergency interest rates and asset prices duly rise - so Labour benefits, exactly as though they hadn't caused the entire problem. It's as though after hitting one iceberg the captain of the Titanic had steamed at full speed towards another one as though another collision would fix the first one.

If we needed evidence that state education produces morons and its public sector hero teachers are useless, it's all there in that story.

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn

westernpromise wrote: »

It's hilarious. Labour wrecks the global economy so that we get 10 years of emergency interest rates and asset prices duly rise - so Labour benefits, exactly as though they hadn't caused the entire problem. It's as though after hitting one iceberg the captain of the Titanic had steamed at full speed towards another one as though another collision would fix the first one.

If we needed evidence that state education produces morons and its public sector hero teachers are useless, it's all there in that story.

Pick your dummy up.

You're either trolling or you're the most biased poster on this forum.

Masomnia

I think this is quite right and the Tories have taken their eye off the ball on it.

Historically the party of home-ownership they really ought to be ahead on this. You never hear Corbyn talk about helping people to buy homes (it's not a priority for him), and the Tories really should be sending that message to the younger generations.

Cakeguts

One of the worst performing councils near here is Labour run. I think everyone hopes they don't win the council elections so that they can go on doing the job badly.

michaels

It is funny:

Labour encouraged unlimited migration, rising population without house building did more than anything to push up London house prices than cheap money or anything else

Crashy_Time

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn wrote: »

Pick your dummy up.

You're either trolling or you're the most biased poster on this forum.

Meeow! The problem with six people stuck in a loop on a forum is that they eventually turn on each other, because there is no one else to argue with.....:rotfl:

GreatApe

Almost everybody is wrong about housing.
It seems no one in government or opposition or the civil service is smart enough to ask well what has happened to homeownership in the cheaper parts of the country?

If its purely down to price then surely the cheap areas would have seen no fall in home ownership?

The fact is even the north east where house prices are below build cost (and down about 30% in real terms over the decade) has seen homeownership fall

The reasons are simple

1. Mass migration. Import 5 million immigrants and renting needs to increase by 2 million homes to house them. This is clear by the fact that 75% if recent immigrants rent privately compared to closer to 15% for UK born.

2. Mass needless higher education delaying kids lives by 6 years meaning they have to wait longer to buy and hence have rent longer pushing up the rental numbers.

If you strip away the recent migrants and look at just the locals ownership is high and at near peak levels.


I'm not pro or anti migration I don't really care but if you want homeownership to increase you are going to stop migrants coming in because they with their 75% propensity to rent privately are boosting rental numbers and decreasing ownership numbers.

Malthusian

It has nothing to do with housing. The Tories have now won three elections in a row, and Labour's turn is severely overdue.

People always come up with reasons to pick the red team over the blue team or vice versa but the real reason is tribal. People choose their beliefs about politics based on their colour affiliation, they don't choose their colour based on their beliefs about politics. If you are a member of the red team, you will believe that high rents are the blue team's fault because of Right To Buy and failure to build enough houses when they were in power. If you are a member of the blue team, you will believe that expensive housing is the red team's fault because of immigration and failure to build enough houses when they were in power.

Neither is correct. A cursory glance at Zoopla will confirm there are plenty of properties available anywhere in the UK. If someone can't afford to pay rent on the property they desire then either their earnings are too low, their expectations are too high, or their other expenditure is too high. That is all. Politics is escapism from this fact, a made-up reason to not make a choice.

The 10% minority known as floating voters (who switch between teams when one has been in power for too long and it's the other one's turn) believe that the blue team is weak on housing because they're bored of the blue team, they're not bored of the blue team because they're weak on housing.

Thrugelmir

cepheus wrote: »

This might partly explain why Labour support in London has surged. They are expected to do well in the forthcoming council elections in May

With Momentum in gear. People maybe in for a shock afterwards though.

NineDeuce

michaels wrote: »

It is funny:

Labour encouraged unlimited migration, rising population without house building did more than anything to push up London house prices than cheap money or anything else

Except that unlimited migration from the EU was a net of less than 1m when Labour lost power, so less than 0.5% of the population. Or are you just one or Farage's merry band of lazy people who believe the minority are responsible for an institutional crisis of the entire country... again....