Affordable Housing for Key Workers

Ian_Shearer

Hooray Martin. Your Blog 29/5 is the first time I have seen in print the sensible answer to the latest political fad.

If nurses, firemen and the like cannot afford to live in some areas where they are needed - then they are not being paid enough! "London weighting" for government workers has been around for ages. The correct solution is for the saleries to be upped to the point where they are paid enough to work in that area. The extra cost gets put on to the presumably wealthy communities Council Tax.

Pennywise

It is a nonsense that public sector workers are on the same pay scales regardless of where they live, the exception being the London weighting of course.

In the private sector, market forces drives wages higher in the affluent areas and wages are far lower in the poorer areas.

The same should apply for public sector workers. The same overall cost could be achieved by increasing public sector wages in the affluent areas and reducing them in the disadvantaged areas. Unfortunately the public sector unions have for years argued against any form of wage differential.

In the big affluent cities, public sector pay is a joke compared with private sector salaries, but in the disadvantaged areas, nurses, fireman, etc are regarded as the "rich" when compared with the very poor wages on offer elsewhere.

BWZN93

I have to agree. I currently live in Bath, which has a housing market that is almost equivalent to London. Stoke on Trent however, where I am originally from, has low housing costs.

The price of a 1 bed flat in Bath is equivalent to a 4 bed detached house in Stoke. And key workers are on the same salaries. Madness!

Jo xx

N9eav

Even in Cornwall, Penzance, the end of the UK. Cheapest house £150,000 1-2 bed terrace. Who can afford to buy that on Gov't money?

MarkyMarkD

Very good point. It's stupid to go around distorting the housing market in particular areas, because the public sector workers are too poorly paid. It would make a lot more sense to pay them a sensible salary in the first place.

sarah1

Has anyone thought of paying nurses and such like in comparison to the council tax rates.
The local authorities have stated how much they want in council tax so wages for these jobs should be set in line with the area which the people live and work in ?????.
How easy is that?

queensway_boy

I make keys