coypondboy

Affordable housing means paying 80% of market rent what we need is council housing which is set at 40% of market rent, this will also reduce housing benefit bill which is 24 billion and will only get worse in the next few years due to housing crash/repossessions/job loss. https://www.newstatesman.com/chart-of-the-day/2022/11/uk-spending-housing-benefit-government-departments

Having just finished Timothy Syndes excellent book Bloodlands maybe we need 2 tyrants like Stalin and Hitler to cull the population? Putin is certainly a candidate for Stalin but not sure who Hitler would be although maybe Netanyahu of Israel could nuke Iran and start a Middle East war after he has finished demolishing Gaza with 100k civilian deaths which will incur the wrathe of other Arab states to get involved. The Polish elections at the weekend we could get a split in NATO/EU and the Ukraine war expand with NATO troops being sent in next year if Ukraine start losing to Putin? Another more deadly Covid bug with no vaccine able to deal with could wipe out a few billion. Nuclear armeggedon should Putin start losing to NATO. Better start digging my fallout shelter at bottom of garden and get food supplies stocked.

sadly many of these apartments are only 25% owned the rest by the housing association with the leaseholder liable for 100% of the service charge which if it fails fire safety rules will double as building ins premium goes up 700-1000%.

yep this is how the phrase Dick Whitting ton ran true for anyone lucky enough to have equity in a right to buy flat in early 90's London just dio a liar loan and build an empire Happy Days thanks to low interest rates for 14 yrs. If only I had a time machine.

yep have mentioned this many times before and a huge draw for immigrants from poorer parts having large families and using the right to buy legislation to start their buy to let empires in the early 90's.

Very sad for many recent graduates as their parents retired and moved to south west so no option to stay at home and as no jobs down there paying a good income worthy of their media studies degrees have to stay in the big smoke and compete with the newly arrived immigrants and others moving to London to find work for somewhere to live.

Mate of mine used to work for Bradford & Bingley and did the mortgage repayment vehicle part which was regulated. He could not believe how much some people were borrowing with liar loans which brought the bank down with 12x income a common one for self employed tradesman which allowed them to build a btl empire and retire at 50 thanks to interest rates being kept at 0.1% for 15 yrs with many selling up over last 2-3 yrs and now sat with millions in the bank. If only I had been brave enough and had a crystal ball would have done the same. I think a re-run of b&B and Northern Rock is coming but will be worse this time as property values will fall faster and bofe won't be able to cut rates to 0.1% which saved them last time.

Interesting article, how many people on this site moved to London from poorer parts of the UKwhilst young and only return at Christmas/weddings/funerals. https://news.sky.com/story/why-young-welsh-people-are-leaving-the-places-they-grew-up-in-to-live-elsewhere-12970170

Another example imagine if they had bought a terraced house at the same time new flats for 220k in 2007 now 170k https://twitter.com/r1ch1eb/status/1709314430377377833/photo/1

Yep you hit the nail on the head London elite we need to move Parliament to Birmingham rather than waste another 50 billion fixing Westminster which could be turned into a museum

don't worry our new incoming labour govt under tony blair and perter mandelson's guidance will have an open door immigration policy from the former British empire (as they did during the last Labour govt), which with a generous welfare state and excellent education system (especially in London where the best teachers are encouraged to work) along with free healthcare should easily sort the numbers.

Computer algorithims and nervous traders hitting markets at the moment with a terrible last week or so on equity and bond markets. Any thoughts?

Funny fixed rates falling this week as we have a fire sale amongst lenders for market share as new mortgages plummeting.

Do you think Labour will build it as Rachel Reeves will be next chancellor and another former investment banker who won't want to soak the rich Londoners with higher taxes but has to appease all those northern voters especially the red wall seats that went tory last time. Not sure what the Scots will make of it maybe build it all the way to edinbrugh to get a few more MP's. Its all about getting into power but without causing a run on the pound as Lizz Truss found out last year.

they won't put it in their manifesto unlike Corbyn who did, you hope they will have learnt from their drubbing and the main reason tories won. I reckon they will sneak it in during their first term depending on how big their majority is as more councils go bankrupt over the next 2-3 yrs and need bailing out rather than 15% increases in council tax.

Ukrainians are losing tens of thousands of men having watched Newsnight's coverage last week both though death and loss of limbs trying to clear all those mines. Russia has many more men and arms surely if the war of attrition becomes a huge Bakhmut somebody will have to stop it. Having read this surely the deaths of millions of their own populations would happen again 75 yrs later?

Hoping Labour if they win the next election maybe in a coalition with Lib Dems as not sure they will get a majority (will be dependent on an SNP Implosion) will be brave and do something about this maybe adopt the N Ireland and Welsh system where the tax is based on a % of the property value which will hit southern England very hard.

How do you think it will end as think Ukrainians will have to be realistic and expect to lose a small part of the Donbass and maybe Crimea with US and NATO twisting their arms to sign a treaty as they did with the Serbs in Kosovo (will be interesting to see if that starts up again as Serbia mass troops on the border and we send more troops to the area), are the Rusiians stirring this up as a distraction?

What a time to announce it whilst in Manchester for the conference utter incompetence expect they will be needing police escorts to and from their accommodation as expect a very angry response from the locals

Interesting developments with Polish elections shortly and Slovakia just voted for Putin friendly govt. Slovakia and Poland along with Hungary are starting to cause concern in Europe and could this lead to a split in their help for Ukraine and what would happen if they asked the Ukranian refugees to move to other parts of Europe as they can not afford to keep them with Poland having 3-4 million causing huge issues which I witnessed last year whilst in Karkow and Wroclaw and talking to our tour guides as to the impact on Polish life. I fear if the war drags on which I think it will then eventually NATO will have to send in troops unless Putin's regime collapses as their economy continues to implode with the ruble tanking and interest rates very high maybe some of the oligarchs still inside will take action as they see their assets frozen/diminish. Any thoughts?

Startling footage of a capital modern city emptied in less than a week.

The biggest threat to the banks will be unemployment as normal now to have 2 incomes to pay the bills. As businesses go bust as people stop spending in the economy people will start losing their homes with those employed in the service sector hit the hardest.

This one nearby in tower hamlets listed with a B2 rating shows the problem with horrendous service charges and will need to extend the lease in 10 yrs time at unknown cost by L&Q one of the biggest housing associations in London and who have advised will take 9-10 yrs to fix all their fire safety issues. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139201256#/?channel=RES_BUY

If you bought a flat in most city centres using htb from 2015 onwards will not have been a great investment with many in negative equity or no profit will struggle to move up the ladder as the price of these flats will continue to fall until all the fire safety issues fixed. Just one example in tower hamlets block allowing shared ownership and help to buy price likely to have fallen another 5-10% in past 18 mths so expect sale price to be below 590k

BCP burned through 100 million of reserves in last 3 yrs so as not to put up council tax by more than 5% but we are fooked now and expect a bankruptcy petition at anytime. Sadly our new Lib Dem leader started life as building society cashier with no formal qualifications and now has to make tough decisions, still as a woman and a Lib Dem she won't be bribed by property developers who ran the town under the previous tory council and gave 16 million to a property company just gone into administartion. https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23824271.future-carters-quay-project-uncertain-administrators-called/