h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone have a link to this think tank report, I'd be interested to see how they justify it.
So, if it costs the seller won't they just up the asking price to cover it?

>>Rental vs. Owning, it's a difficult one, I grant you. But if you loose your job you can sell the house and rent, perhaps on the social. If renting you don't even have that.


If you are renting, you will get your rent paid by Housing Benefit. If you own a house, and you sell it and begin to rent, you'd have to use the capital to pay your rent, as the Housing people say no! if you have more than about £7000 in the bank. Not good, but that's the rules.

I saw it in todays daily telegraph and there is a comment here on the BBC news - http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_2117000/2117467.stm

You can actually take out insurance against unemployment, sickness and accident so that mortgage payments can be protected for 6 months or even 12 months. This insurance isn't that expensive if you shop around but surprisingly most people don't take it out.

I shall have to check out this stamp duty thing. Go the Government! They're really in touch aren't they?

Our seller still hasn't found a property btw so we're still stuck in our flat smelly smelly. I'm never buying again personally!

I could have this wrong, but I thought that most redundancy insurance doesn't kick in for several months, so you could still be in trouble.

The stamp duty stuff has all been denied now anyway.

And you believe the government when they deny something
................... ROFLMAO

It wouldnt have been leaked if they werent genuinely considering it - but yet again being totally out of touch with popular sentiment (like most goverments) they were forced to back pedal once it got into the public domain (just like the access to e-mail and telephone records fiasco).

according to the policy we're taking out, it kicks in after 30 days. Its worth having I think...

L

Yes, but they will only insure you up to the age of 60 so if your mortgage continues longer than that (and you can't move because your kids are still in full-time education) you could still find yourself in trouble.

Also, it doesn't work for people like me (there are some - getting more numerous every month) who work on fixed contracts

So, what does everyone think of these new houseing estates in the south then? Good idea? Bad idea?

Whats so wrong with a big estate next to you if it is populate exclusively with nurses, police and teachers? Sounds like a nice place to me

Of course the other side of me, the side that has seen/read too much dark SciFi is a little dubious about the idea of specifically build houseing areas for certain sectors of society, kinda like
'Ah? you're a teacher, right? That means you will be allowed to live over there in that estate. Nope, you can't live here as that's for the civil servants. And that over there is for the managers, and thats for the directors...' stikes me as another step down the social engineering road.

I wonder if there will be some sort of covenant written in that once people have moved in and bought them that they can only sell them for a capped small percentage rise, and then only to other key workers. Otherwise what is the point? They will just increase in value out of reach again, and in the end will be snapped up by investment buyers and we are back where we started.

Seems like a good idea, but I'll wait for the details...

More affordable housing sounds good to me, though I don't see how you could maintain a segregated population. (don't like the idea of one either)

Are these houses to only be made available to nurses, teachers firemen etc? Whats to stop one of the key workers buying at a reduced rate, then selling for a massive profit after a few months? Will there be a clause in their deeds?

Why not keep the hose prices at whatever the market dictates, but offer a one off housing allowance to key workers admitedly, that would still be a nightmare to administrate.

I earn a similar amount to a , and there's no affordable housing going to be offered to me.

Snap Must type faster!

The point about selling on etc. is one that also occurred to me. I guess it's gonna be like housing association stuff where you can only sell to pre-vetted buyers that the housing assoc. says are OK. That way they control the sale and so forth. I wonder if they will be controlled by only offering part mortgages or something?

I also wonder if they will be purely residential or will actually be new towns? I guess any night club or pub in a town poulated exclusively by nurses and firemen would pull punters from miles around ......

Brownfield sites....
I live in a pleasant street on the way into Southampton. Just after I moved in, the two houses next door to me were sold to a local developer (funnily enough, both had previously been small nursing homes, empty after the market for that fell over), who want to build sixteen flats and 2 bungalows on the site after knocking the houses down. Naturally, the local community objected, pointing out that this development was changing the neighbourhood drastically and surprisingly the planning department agreed, cut the density and told them that the better of the two houses should be kept.
Next thing, the company had appealled to a tribunal, in Bristol!!! They visited and spent two hours at the site, allowed the developer another two flats and upheld the order to keep the one house.
Imagine my surprise, the next day, arriving home to find both houses demolished! On enquiery, it appears they had managed to reverse a large lorry into the one they were supposed to keep, accidentally of course, had the council in to pronounce it unstable, and... hey presto! Quick change of planning permission and they managed to build everything they wanted!
Now I read that our government (have you seen the little piggies...) are to relax planning rules for building development...

Me, a cynic?

Jack-oh

With these specific housing areas, what would happen if you were made redundant, or changed job?

Would an injured Nurse or Fireman, who had to take a desk job, be asked to move?

Jack O
The same thing happened to a house near to my Grandma's - big house with nursing home potential. The real nasty bit was that they didn't even bother applying for planning permission - they just knocked it down. Of course everyone knew then and kicked up a fuss but it was too late. The site stayed as a building site for 6 months or so and then some flats got put up in its place - it still hasn't been made clear what happened (whether the original scum put up their intended building or whether the coucil confiscated the site and let someone else build there) but I'm amazed at the lack of powers the planning office has in these matters.

PS what is the name of the developers in Soton (I work at the uni) and I'll start up an unofficial boycott.

The real issue, for me, is not being addressed by the governments proposals - the lack of affordable rented accomodation within major conurbations.

This problem goes back to the shopkeepers daughter changing the cap ex rules for local authorities that prevented them (and still does) from using the proceeds from the sales of council housing stock to build more houses for rent.

The other problem is that property developers, other than housing associations, are not interested in building social (i.e. affordable) housing as there is too little profit in it for them.