Saturday, Jun 23, 2007
Amazing that 'direct action' has taken this long - I can really see this spreading...
Telegraph: Lake District faces war on second homes
A self-styled "popular liberation army" has pledged to attack holiday homes in the Lake District in protest at "leech-like scum" whom they claim have pushed property prices so high that local people can no longer afford to live in the area.
Posted by tyrellcorporation @ 10:05 AM (758 views) Add Comment
33 Comments
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1. Scott said...
People are at breaking point. This could be the start of something much bigger. If they get positive results from their action, other groups on this island will be encouraged to do the same.
2. Chembot said...
I am in total support of this action. I want to see it spread. I am beginning to think that the widespread backlash against the vast amounts of wealth that a tiny minority are accumulating will be the 'black swan'. Particularly as we understand that their spending power is such that they contribute to rising asset prices across all classes. People who are landed with a huge mortgage bill each month have them to thank to some extent. How long will people sit passively watching while the world becomes more and more skewed in the favour of these few whose contribution to the world seems to be thoroughly negative, whatever their claims to the contrary?
3. Scott said...
Their progress will be interesting. Will they achieve their goal or will they simply be a cult of followers worshipping former times (like the hard-liners in the Conservative party).
4. paul said...
This was featured here earlier, tyrell. This is definitely the sharp end of misguided government and MPC incompetence.
5. royston said...
Chhaaaaaarrrrrgggeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6. paul said...
I prefer to think of Brain Blessed as a winged Vulcan shouting "Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!" - but not for too long.
7. harold said...
I can understand the frustration of these guys, but their time would be better spent exposing and fighting the system that is responsible (which is not capitalism, but the abuse of a fiat system which transfers wealth and power to an elite).
8. royston said...
I really don't think the politicians have got the measure of just how big this issue is to the British public. But they will! Today, the Lake District. Tomorrow, London.
9. sirgoogle said...
Just like the 80s and the problem of holiday homes in Wales forcing out the locals....
Not the 9 o'clock news .....
"Come home to a real fire, buy a cottage in ...... The Lake District."
10. Woodyman said...
but they have to go to the countryside! the cities are full of east europeans renting off of BTL land lords. Surely this website can muster support for a March on parliament for first time buyers.
11. Ticktock said...
It would be very interesting to know which US VI is funding and training them if indeed that is the case.
12. inbreda said...
Good on them.
Lets just hope that when they torch some of these holiday homes it is when the leech-like owners are home.
13. paul said...
"Come home to a real fire, buy a cottage in ...... The Lake District."
Very good. That's made my day.
14. royston said...
But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.
15. taffee said...
'come home to a real fire' sketch from NOT the nine o'clock news.
LOL!!!!!!how true though
16. Fedupwithhouseprices said...
I don't suppose the holiday home owners really thought of the impact it would have. Each individual just wanted a nice home in a nice area to escape to away from work, city life etc. and didn't realise it would happen on such a grand scale with the resulting consequences. After all they could say that the people who were born in the beautiful areas are the elite and why should they have the advantages of such surroundings. Just looking at it from their point of view and no I'm not one of them! I haven't even got my own home and am renting 'cos of house prices. I don't like BTLs or second home owners any more than the rest of you.
I think torching etc is too extreme and will destroy lovely, probably old properties, then if the situation rectifies itself the locals still won't be able to buy any 'cos they'll all be burnt down!. The government should intervene and tax heavily or something similar.
17. Bearback said...
Good luck to the Freedom Fighters
18. also sold to rent said...
I agree with fedupwithhouseprices on this one. Calling people scum just because as a group they have caused you problems even though they were all (probably) acting in good faith as individuals, is childish. After all, nobody forced the locals to sell to 'outsiders' who were offering more money.
19. Lifes2short4shit said...
Perhaps some of these idiots should spend more time working, rather than blaming others for the predicament they are in, they maybe able to afford to buy a place then!!!
20. paul said...
also sold to rent, I want to agree with you but the line "The government should intervene and tax heavily or something similar." from Fedup's post says it all.
That's exactly what the government WON'T do. They won't intervene to clean up the mess they've made, because they can call it "market forces" when actually it was down to "market intervention" on their part all along.
I support this action too.
21. Scott said...
Dam "Fedupwithhouseprices" and "also sold to rent",
Here we go, typical bloody beugwarh socialists. These type always cop out when the crunch comes. I bet they went to college. I bet their parents have a house in some nice rich suburb.
22. tyrellcorporation said...
I support this action insofar as it will focus the minds of politicians and hopefully get some exposure in the mainstream media. The plight of priced-out locals is acute and someone needs to be representing them - if that boils down to some guys with some bog-roll and a zippo then that's a failure of politics more than anything!
23. bidin'matime said...
Sorry to be the party pooper, but I think that criminal activity against innocent people is wrong and to support it is wrong. I don't happen to own a cottage in the Lake District, nor a house anywhere else for that matter, and if I did, I'd sell it soon, but that's another matter.
The key points have been made above –
1) The locals who sold these places to incomers didn’t have to - they pocketed the extra cash that they got, so maybe it's them, not the incomers who should be targeted. But then it was their right to sell to whoever they liked.
2) The people who bought the cottages did not set out to put someone out of a home – they are not part of an organised campaign to deprive people of a home in the ‘land of their birth’. Indeed, they have spent a considerable sum of money in the region (buying the cottage) so they probably feel that they have helped the region – again, it’s the guy they paid the money to, who may well have done a runner to France and retired on his profits, who should be criticised.
Of course, those that are let out as holiday accommodation enable visitors to come and stay and spend lots of cash in the region – getting rid of all of them would result in a loss of income for the region that could put all these self-styled warriors further up the creek than they are now. Even by frightening holidaymakers away with threatened action, they will hurt the region, not help it.
Maybe they should get involved in local politics and agitate for a local tax on holiday homes. If there was a local tax payable on property owned as second homes, then this would (a) suppress the demand for them (and so the prices) and (b) raise funds from those incomers who go ahead and buy anyway, for use in building more housing for locals.
Unfortunately there will always be an element in society who take the view ‘if I can't have it then neither will you’, but they do nothing to help the rest of us.
, I would reserve the right to sell it to
24. royston said...
In my book, the primary residence is sacrosanct. Second or more homes represent a legalised form of theft whereby the older age groups get to own everything at the expense of the younger generations. Like the French and Russian revolutions, there is a certain justice in the people snatching back what is rightfully theirs. Laws are usually distorted to protect the rights of the capital owning classes.
25. wiltshire said...
One of the problems we now face as a society is that as the issues (house prices, incomes, stealth taxation, crime etc etc) become more distorted from the 'norm', the responses from people become more distorted. Of course many people will use 'legitimate' ways to voice their concerns (starting petitions, writing to newspapers, MPs etc) but there will always be those for whom such options aren't appropriate. At the end of the day we are in a society where the government will offhandedly dismiss 2 million anti-war marchers and 2 million signatures to an online petition. For some, they already know that legitimate protest is not going to get them anywhere.
I remember the poll tax riot in Trafalgar Square. Whether the protestors were right or wrong what, at the end of the day, do the establishment expect? Practically every single community in this country were up in arms about the poll tax and the Thatcher government didn't pay a blind bit of notice. (Also as always protest is a question of which side you're on - protests in Trafalgar Square = bad, protests in Tianaman Square, Berlin Wall, Romania, Poland etc = good).
26. deepak said...
As someone who has worked in the holiday industry, I completely agree with Post #23.
The people who have made the house prices rise and pocketed the cash are the locals itself. The outsiders have paid the high amount for it.
Moreover most of the owners of these holiday agencies own 4-5 cottages each. And they are locals as well.
All these owners get BTL benifits of interest write off as mentioned in various posts today.
I really understand the plight of the young generation who are not able to start a life. Shows the stress in their situation if they have to take up to voilence. Things have to be really bad.
27. enuii said...
The whole thing is a cash cow for the government, all that lovely stamp duty from the inflated prices and just think in a few years when the older BTLers pop their clogs there will be a nice big chunk of inheritance tax as well. Have some sympathy for all those BTLers out there who haven't got a clue when they will die for they are just working for the taxman for he will surely cometh like the Grim Reaper.
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28. Talman said...
So, let me see. This web site has now a hub for inciting arson? Grow up you idiots. I want to see a crash as much as anyone but why can't you see that if all Lakeland properties were owned by Lakeland folk at some time in the past then the only reason they are now in the hands of others is that outsider's money was considered as good as anybody else's. Blame the revious owners for not considering the moral implications of their sales, not the buyers.
29. Orwell said...
This happened after the war according to Andrew Marrs programme and then it was followed by the biggest council house building programme this last century and then sell off of council houses and then.......................?
30. Fedupwithhouseprices said...
Scott you're totally wrong about my situation and if you read my previous post properly you will see that I don't agree with people owning all these second or more homes. It's playing havoc with the housing market. However I still stick with burning houses down is NOT the answer.
31. royston said...
(I'll let you into a little secret - I don't really believe in the theft and destruction of private property - but I like the idea that such talk could make potential second home owners have second thoughts as to the best vehicle for preserving their wealth. Leave house to those who want to live in them. If you want an investment, buy gold!)
32. Anon said...
Surely burning the houses down constricts supply even further?
33. george monsoon said...
I agree with Royston on all points apart from investing in gold. Silver is potentially a much safer bet.