Gone baby gone

They have tried this in a few places and there are usually restrictions on who can buy the new houses. So locals buy them and then when they move on to a bigger home 5 yrs down the line, the second owners could well be holiday home owners and you're back to square one. The ability to make council tax as high as a local council deems necessary to restrict second homes seems reasonable* * - With the house sold at purchase price-10% if the owner fails to register it as a second home or misreports their main residence...

Yes you can. But what about somebody who wasn't at subsistence, but after their youngest child was born a change of circumstances (e.g. unemployment, illness, relationship breakup, etc) moves them to subsistence level? Try and push the baby back up? Force them to give up the child?

Try Google Image search, took me two seconds, you could probably have got there in 5 minutes: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/11/the-rich-countries-with-the-most-generous-unemployment-benefits/265319/ Smash it, yeah, we know. When your preconceived ideas are confronted by facts to the contrary, just like economist Hulk, your first thought is to try and discredit the facts. Good practice for a career in politics. Not good practice for a career in anything else.

You mean, like using averages for things like income? Not a vast % of the UK population who are on £100K+ I think you'll find. Please Hulk, don't hurt me, I don't want to smash the facts, just understand them!

I'm sure that's just a coincidence

Yes, funny to see the conclusion we reached about UC + IDS a while ago on the UC thread slowing seeping into the mainstream consciousness. Next up... strikes and low-level public disorder starting this summer, which will probably turn nasty by next winter.

"We" made the choice did "we"? Or did our politicians dangling from the strings of our corporate masters make that choice... ? Hmm....

Are you "ECONOMIST HULK" by any chance? He says: "WHEN FACTS CHANGE, HULK SMASH FACTS UNTIL THEY FIT HIS PRE-CONCEIVED THEORY." Which sounds very much like your argument fact smashing.

Cash wasn't king in the Weimar Republic circa 1921-1925... lots of people with cash taking haircuts that chopped their heads off at the neck.

TBH, they should have gone with something like that, but at the same time committed to a complete review of the benefits system with a view to a total replacement that could be (at least in theory if not in detail) agreed across the three major parties. It's clear the current system is not fit for purpose, but it's also clear UC is pretty much business is usual with a few tweaks, just backed by a doomed IT project.

I think the level of interference over the last few years means the 18 year "rule" is no longer valid. If from 2008 to 2012 was the downcycle, it really is a new paradigm - majority renting for life.

A little bit of this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BGYJY7MCYAEg2Q8.jpg A little bit of that: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-21923577

IDS has been on the dole twice I believe, which is why he was the "right man for the job"* * = also he's not really that good at much else

To be fair to them, they have been doing a good job. They know that these days you can't mistreat the proles too badly, but keep them from going hungry, give them the illusion of opportunity plus a few circuses every now and then and you are as far from revolution as it's possible to be. The bad news is, they can keep this up longer than you can keep waiting to buy a house.

I guess that depends what you buy and how you buy it. Could be some competition for buyers of repossessions for example.

Someone can see it. Assetz... http://blog.expertmarket.co.uk/Northern-Businesses-To-Benefit-From-Asian-Investment Say hello to Mr Itso Wong, your new landlord.

Maybe you could do us a favour and assume the role of "Editor" rather than "Conduit" then...

WTF is "special flowers" all about? Are you a market gardener?

Wow! Sarah, you really have a bee in your bonnet about "Bedroom Tax"

Rent review boards? Are you some kind of <whispers> shirker? Mind you, if they pulled away the artificial prop that is Housing Benefit, you might not need a rent board. But there is no appetite for the short term (and extremely visible) misery this would cause for a period of time.

Surely an intentional side effect of our electoral system is that parties change their manifesto/policy according to what is popular with the public. Hearing Ed Milliband talk of tax cuts was recent proof of this - the main parties steal policy mercilessly from the others, why should UKIP (or indeed any party) by exempt?

Money IS mobile though. And while there are people priced out, there are rents to be harvested With a government prepared to step in and support house prices at almost any cost, it's not surprise we've already heard of investors from the far east touring the uk looking for BTLs...

Yes, all very surprising and impossible to predict.

Asia? Russia? China? Stepping back a moment and playing devil's advocate... if we are happy for labour, energy and food to be subject to global competition, why should homes be special?

Like everything else, we outsourced our saving. Now, where did I put that MBA?