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More good news. Interesting stat from the article too: "The party quoted from a study by King’s College London which estimated that a one percentage point rise in the share of residential transactions registered to overseas companies led to an increase of about 2.1% in house prices, and lowered the overall homeownership rate." https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/22/tory-party-pledges-3-surcharge-for-overseas-buyers-of-english-homes

Are we all misjudging Theresa's political skills? Here is a scenario: Let's imagine that she is in favour of remain. She achieves leadership of the Tory party by pretending to have changed her spots, however, it is all a clever ruse. She then wins over lots of support by championing Brexit, but then pulls an amazing stunt by calling for an election. Instead of the ostensible reason for the election, i.e. having an increased majority, she actually intends to totally **** up the whole process, and end up in coalition? To this end, she writes the most unpopular manifesto, comes up with a way of taking the housing wealth from her core voters, aims to introduce grammar schools, and even steals food from school children. Not content with a manifesto that is designed to wind up her supporters, she then makes a total hash of public appearances, and then refuses, in a cowardly way, to debate with the other party leaders. This way she enters a Lib-Dem coalition, and Brexit is averted, and better still it isn't even her fault. It isn't as if there is any precedent for a Tory leader calling for a public vote and then finding they don't get the result they 'wanted'. How could she have known? Well played Mrs May. ---- Someone remind me about Occam's razor... is it that the simplest explanation, that fits all the available facts, is probably correct? Optobear

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/28/uk-housing-crisis-in-breach-of-human-rights Word.

From a purely HPC point of view (and by that I mean the provision of quality, affordable, no-strings housing to buy, not necessarily a collapse in prices across the board...) who should we be rooting for when the election happens in May? My take on it having had a quick skim over their housing policies:- Conservative: + arguably accomplished more since 2010 than Labour managed in their years in power. There seems to be an increase in newbuild affordable housing and planning restrictions have been relaxed. + Possible vote on the EU has the potential to limit immigration (which is a big strain on housing) - Unikely to do anything about landlords. - Help to Buy is a disaster waiting to happen once interest becomes payable after the initial five years has finished. - Cannot rule out them spending a lot more public money on propping up this whole thing... Labour: + In theory, provision of low-cost, quality housing should, in theory, be a priority + Better rights for private tenants might discourage BTL. + Mansion Tax? - absolutely no commitment to reducing immigration (no EU referendum) - awful track record in this department. Libdems: + In theory, provision of low-cost, quality housing should, in theory, be a priority... + want to build "300,000 homes a year" + Increased rights for private tenants - No real chance of getting elected - Immigration (Committed to the EU) UKIP: + Limits on immigration likely after leaving the EU, relieving some pressure on housing - NIMBY-friendly policies - Committed to protecting the "green belt" Greens: + "Disincentives to the speculative ownership of housing will be introduced, including higher rates of Council Tax for unoccupied properties and second homes" + Private sector "needs to have rents controlled and tenants provided with additional legal protection." - Pretty much an open door immigration policy. - Minimise the encroachment onto undeveloped "greenfield" sites - "To hold back all new development on agricultural land or other land not at present within the confines of an urban (including village) area." Who is the best of this bad bunch? :-/