Friday, Aug 22, 2008
Brilliant programme: Thousands of empty houses exposed
BBC3: Cheap Homes for Sale ?
Well worth a watch. I especially like the bit where he phones the association of EAs to ask about qualifications.
As usual, we can trace the source of another UK disaster back the Maggie.
"Documentary in which newly-married presenter Alex Riley finds out what it takes to climb on to the property ladder.
Alex has a dream of buying a home for himself, his wife and possible future children, but as he embarks on a jaw-dropping journey he discovers nearly a million properties lying empty and soon realises that Britain's property ladder is more than just broken."
Posted by doomwatch @ 10:14 AM (1480 views) Add Comment
19 Comments
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1. yorkshireman said...
Make that 1 million and 86. This includes the 86 new houses as yet unsold, in our little Dales village.
2. japanese uncle said...
Property mogul or property morgue? Go to hell anyway.
3. a saver said...
I watched last night, quite funny-liked the name of his "estate agency", Norfolk&Holmes (geddit?)
He featured houses owned by government bodies and local councils that are just lying empty and boarded up. This includes approx 400 properties in the area of Liverpool where Ringo Starr grew up, streets and streets of terraced houses, some even 5-bed, as mentioned previously on this forum. The plan is to demolish them and replace them with a newbuild village community, at taxpayer expense obviously. Utterly criminal!!!
BTW the guy wanted to talk to Caroline Flint re the empty house situation and she wouldn't. Made me think, what does she actually achieve, apart from leaking government papers that hugely underestimate the coming fall in property prices to the press?
4. mark wadsworth said...
Replace Council Tax and SDLT with Land Value Tax. That'll sort them out.
Either it becomes too expensive to leave a house empty OR the tax is so negligible that people are happy to move there because they save a grand a year in council tax.
5. Eagle said...
Caroline Flint:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-436848/How-Blair-babe-airburshed-secret-Tunisian-husband-life.html
6. japanese uncle said...
How come did they not create this programme seven years ago?
7. Stevie Dee said...
Lol.. great post. £180,000 for a box.. madness.
8. uncle tom said...
Pity that with material worthy of use by Panorama, they opted instead to make a lame attempt at comedy..
9. harold said...
But surely we need to dig up what remains of the green belt to meet the demand?!
10. peter_2008 said...
I watched it last night. It's absolutely appalling. Politicians and councilors just don’t care. Nazis talking about gassing Jewish people would have sounded more sincere and sympathetic!!
Politicians and councilors are your average landlords. It is in their best interest to starve the housing market.
As one of the residents pointed out, the landlords make more money to demolish and build expensive new homes than renovate affordable houses for poor people.
11. Mark Wadsworth said...
@Harold, I hope that was tongue-in-cheek.
The designated greenbelt area is about 15% of the UK (by area), it's more than the bit that's actually built on (a bit over 10%). In other words, nearly 90% is farms, forests, lakes etc (a sixth of which is Hallowed Green Belt and five sixths of which isn't).
12. Ilikepies said...
saw it last night and thought that it was a great show. pity that it was hidden away on bbc3
13. letthemfall said...
Isn't this rather an old programme? All those "investors" in cheap suits are last year's breed, surely. Well, this lightish offering is another good reason not to bother with digital TV. I can watch as much rubbish I like on BBC1 and 2. Even Panorama can make these subjects fun these days.
14. Still-waiting said...
@Eagle. What is the point of a link to that article? Are MPs not allowed to have failed relationships. I'm not a big fan of Caroline Flint, but that story made me quite sympathetic towards her. The guy sounds like a total arhole. It says he "told" his story to the Mail. I think they meant "sold". And it tells us he is now married to someone else, yet he still announces "I still love Caroline...". Bet his wife is really happy with that comment. And of course we have to hear more than once about the wonderful lovemaking they indulged in. Jeez. Everyone working at the Daily Mail should be lined up and shot.
15. harold said...
MW, yes I was parroting the argument frequently put forward by VI lobby groups (developers) and government sponsored 'think' tanks.
16. Zr_seanie said...
wicked program it shows you how much the people in charge just grin and walk away from the problem liek the man who was asking why he was outside the building, once he know what he wanted to went off and she went home out of the side door COW
17. Whostolemyendowment said...
A tragic waste of houses in areas where there is desparate need - programme was a little light weight, but no one in power will take it seriously anyway - so why not have a little fun while raising the issue. This programme needs to be reshown on mainstream TV......
18. a saver said...
Eagle, very interesting, thanks, but I was wondering what Caroline Flint did to benefit the housing situation in the UK! You know the job we pay her to do.
Zr_16seanie @16, yeah, CF didn't impress me either. At least Lembit Opik talked on camera and said he'd be delighted to talk about tackling the housing problem. Maybe it was just lip service though, don't know if any action came out of it...
19. Stevie Dee said...
http://constitutionus.com/