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Right-to-buy council homes lucrative for rich landlords; Thatcher's Housing Minister's family hit jackpot
Topic Started: Aug 16 2015, 06:30 AM (386 Views)
Heinrich
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Regular Guy
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Almost 40 per cent of council homes sold under Tory "right-to-buy" are now being let by private landlords who are making a killing. Ex-council homes sold at knock-down prices are a boon to entrepreneurial rich landlords. "As an example of how the local authority sell-off has been exploited, Stephen Gow, son of Margaret Thatcher’s housing minister Ian Gow, owns more than 40 former council flats in Westminster alone."
Morning Star
You have to hand it to the Conservative Working People's Party, they can pull-off a scam without even trying to pretend otherwise. Only the brasen upper middle class in England could get away with such a fiddle.
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Replies:
Affa
Senior Member
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Steve K
Aug 18 2015, 08:51 AM
Affa
Aug 17 2015, 11:45 PM
Rich
Aug 17 2015, 10:58 PM
Quite obviously, this situation does not help matters............or might it be said that it is being done on purpose?

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/14/brickmakers-straining-to-meet-demand
Why are we still building red brick houses at all?

Posted Image

£69k Houses - social renting. Should read £60k
:rubchin:

That's Oxley Woods - award winning in 2008 but subject to litigation for poor design leading to water ingress in 2014

The thing is with brick built houses they look right, are robust, don't look bad after 5 years when water staining affects non brick build and they are easy to modify. IIRC they really don't cost much more to build either.



you can protect walls from damp, and even staining these days - a simple spray job.
I once spent the whole day sat on a slate roof after a particularly bad storm - not something I want to repeat or have.


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Tigger
Senior Member
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Rich
Aug 17 2015, 10:41 PM
I will not disagree with your view, but as the situation regarding housebuilding is not likely to alter in the foreseeable future, then surely you can see that there is only one option available and that involves the number of bods here, if you have a better solution then please put it forth, this or any other administration is not the be all and end all of solutions, as our hands are tied at present regarding free movement between EU citizens (and that is not wholly a believable statistic) I see no other solution in order to bring market forces back to rationale.

And this is why we are where we are.
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=3%20main%20builders%20will%20post%20record%20profits


Not going to sink in is it? As ever your are fixated on immigrants and probably Europe, it's quite simple really and at the risk of repeating myself, no hold on I can't be arsed.

If you want to solve the housing crisis this is what you do.

1. Rip up the present planning laws they are a legal minefield and often contradictory and open to interpretation, start afresh.Planning laws are the biggest obstacle by far.

2. Make land banking expensive, use it or lose it and impose a tax on the land once planning consent has been granted, a ticking clock will get things moving.

3. Fixed rate mortgages for the life of that loan, common in many nations, combine that with US style handing the keys over to the lender if you default, as a result of shifting the liability onto lenders that mortgage lending will become more responsible and price speculation will diminish.

4, The state starts building houses again, we did it before and we should do it again. The present hosing market lacks competition and is effectively are cartel, and remove ALL state subsidies from housebuilding.

5. German style rent controls to prevent the workforce being ripped off by landlords, tighter control on letting agents and full licensing, prosecute those who fail to declare income from property, I'm afraid that is rather common here.

Of course in Conservative run Britain aeronautical pigs are more likely as the present situation is entirely deliberate and will not change at all, "reforms" will be limited and designed to give the impression of action but will be worthless hot air, and of course Britain's bloated financial sector is heavily reliant on money backed by vastly overpriced housing.......

Edited by Tigger, Aug 18 2015, 08:39 PM.
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Tigger
Senior Member
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Steve K
Aug 17 2015, 10:48 PM


The biggest aspect of rigging imho is how developers get agricultural land reclassified for housing.



Many years ago and in all seriousness I was told the best way to obtain council contracts was to get myself involved at the local lodge, the same thing if you were intent on seeking planning permission, I notice our local council has several developers and property owners within it's ranks.

And as for (larger) developers buying brownfield sites and then getting planning permission, that does not really happen, if a developer is after land he will expect to get planning permission and will have sounded out the chances of that happening, it's the landowner that will get the big pay day as he signs over the plot.
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Tigger
Senior Member
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Rich
Aug 17 2015, 10:58 PM
Steve K
Aug 17 2015, 10:48 PM
Tigger
Aug 17 2015, 10:19 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
Well a huge part of the problem is the demand for housing within 2 hours commuting door to door to London offices. It's bonkers.

I don't share your rigged view per se but certainly every major political party knows that the very last thing to do while in power is have a housing price crash. A guaranteed vote loser that so economic policy is always managed to try to prevent such.

The biggest aspect of rigging imho is how developers get agricultural land reclassified for housing.



Quite obviously, this situation does not help matters............or might it be said that it is being done on purpose?

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/14/brickmakers-straining-to-meet-demand
And you'll like this, thanks to our "free market economy" most of the building material companies that in my younger days were wholly British owned are now largely in foreign hands with profits flowing mainly to French and German holding companies, in fact Britain's biggest brick maker is now owned by the Hun*.

But console yourself with the fact that several hedge fund bosses are now extremely rich and could not give a fuck about the country they leech off of....... :)

Correction Britain's two biggest brick makers are owned by foreign companies, *Weinerburger and Ibstock which is now owned by a US hedge fund.

Bunch of fucking monkeys in charge of this country.
Edited by Tigger, Aug 18 2015, 08:59 PM.
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Rich
Senior Member
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Tigger
Aug 18 2015, 08:36 PM
Rich
Aug 17 2015, 10:41 PM
I will not disagree with your view, but as the situation regarding housebuilding is not likely to alter in the foreseeable future, then surely you can see that there is only one option available and that involves the number of bods here, if you have a better solution then please put it forth, this or any other administration is not the be all and end all of solutions, as our hands are tied at present regarding free movement between EU citizens (and that is not wholly a believable statistic) I see no other solution in order to bring market forces back to rationale.

And this is why we are where we are.
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=3%20main%20builders%20will%20post%20record%20profits


Not going to sink in is it? As ever your are fixated on immigrants and probably Europe, it's quite simple really and at the risk of repeating myself, no hold on I can't be arsed.

If you want to solve the housing crisis this is what you do.

1. Rip up the present planning laws they are a legal minefield and often contradictory and open to interpretation, start afresh.Planning laws are the biggest obstacle by far.

2. Make land banking expensive, use it or lose it and impose a tax on the land once planning consent has been granted, a ticking clock will get things moving.

3. Fixed rate mortgages for the life of that loan, common in many nations, combine that with US style handing the keys over to the lender if you default, as a result of shifting the liability onto lenders that mortgage lending will become more responsible and price speculation will diminish.

4, The state starts building houses again, we did it before and we should do it again. The present hosing market lacks competition and is effectively are cartel, and remove ALL state subsidies from housebuilding.

5. German style rent controls to prevent the workforce being ripped off by landlords, tighter control on letting agents and full licensing, prosecute those who fail to declare income from property, I'm afraid that is rather common here.

Of course in Conservative run Britain aeronautical pigs are more likely as the present situation is entirely deliberate and will not change at all, "reforms" will be limited and designed to give the impression of action but will be worthless hot air, and of course Britain's bloated financial sector is heavily reliant on money backed by vastly overpriced housing.......

You will not beat the system, the only way is to reduce the numbers of bods be they immigrant or otherwise and eventually market forces will do the rest, I do not expect you to agree with my view and vice versa......so please stop trying to persuade me otherwise, you are wasting your time.....there's a good chap.
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Tigger
Senior Member
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Rich
Aug 18 2015, 09:35 PM
You will not beat the system, the only way is to reduce the numbers of bods be they immigrant or otherwise and eventually market forces will do the rest, I do not expect you to agree with my view and vice versa......so please stop trying to persuade me otherwise, you are wasting your time.....there's a good chap.
So you admit your are ignorant and prefer simplistic and child like solutions to complex problems?

;-)
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Rich
Senior Member
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Tigger
Aug 18 2015, 09:51 PM
Rich
Aug 18 2015, 09:35 PM
You will not beat the system, the only way is to reduce the numbers of bods be they immigrant or otherwise and eventually market forces will do the rest, I do not expect you to agree with my view and vice versa......so please stop trying to persuade me otherwise, you are wasting your time.....there's a good chap.
So you admit your are ignorant and prefer simplistic and child like solutions to complex problems?

;-)
If you say so.
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