Beckett No Longer Housing Minister

[Driver]

No link yet, sorry.

[bobthe~]

No link yet, sorry.

to be replaced by Stuart Law

[Y-QUERK]

What does the Housing Minister do these days? Pray for HPI?

[Minos]

Seems a little harsh.

Didn't one of her initiatives recently save two hardworking families from repossession? Oh, now I get it - probably the most successful initiative from this government - she had to go, can't make the rest look bad.

[Concrete Jungle]

to be replaced by Stuart Law

However Sibley, Rinoa, HAMISH MCTAVISH, TTRTR, andykn and London to Manchester are all in the frame to replace Beckett

Edited June 5, 2009 by Concrete Jungle

[MOP]

Sky saying she has left because she was not offered a promotion to the cabinet.

[Bobajobbob]

She's resigned too. Its all crashing down. Press conference at 4.00. Will Gordon resign? I doubt it but I bet he will say he is just getting on with the job and his other various oecd catch phrases.

[Guest anorthosite]

She's resigned too. Its all crashing down. Press conference at 4.00. Will Gordon resign? I doubt it but I bet he will say he is just getting on with the job and his other various oecd catch phrases.

Shall we make a drinking game of it?

[three pint princess]

She supported Gordon and he didn't give her anything, maybe he's in the paranoid stage.

[rw42]

I'm waiting for someone to hand him a south park video..

Can't you imagine brown just waddling up to the microphone, shouting 'screw you guys, i'm going home!', and never to be heard of again?

[yellerkat]

Shall we make a drinking game of it?

We'd all die of liver failure!

[copydude]

Spivtastic!

Sky . . . It is understood Peter Hain will return to the Cabinet as Welsh Secretary.

The return of the money launderer.

That'll keep the Cabinet squeaky dirty.

[blankster]

Have Margaret Beckett and Princess Anne ever been seen at the same place at the same time?

[Gideon Gono]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/...Heads_To_Health

[Guest anorthosite]

We'd all die of liver failure!

I was going to suggest downing your drink every time a minister resigned, but that could put us all under the table within minutes

[Sybil13]

What does the Housing Minister do these days? Pray for HPI?

Well Beckett this year in January spoke about "green shoots" and the papers said

Fury at Becketts "Green Shoots" gaffe :

Margaret Beckett was accused of being ‘divorced from reality’ after suggesting first-time buyers should snap up bargains amid signs of a property market ‘upturn’.

The housing minister even warned there could be another house price bubble in the ‘mad rush’ after mortgage lending resumes.........Tory frontbencher William Hague said: ‘I think the problem here is that these ministers are clearly divorced from reality.

‘Here they are, when tens of thousands of people are losing their jobs, talking about green shoots and housing booms.

‘I don’t think they really understand what is going on out there.’...........................Prices are already at levels last seen in August 2004 and experts warn further, equally large, declines are likely.

A report out today from respected forecaster the Item Club predicts a 22 per cent fall in house prices over the next 18 months, on top of existing losses.

Then we hear, First Time Buyers Rush to Sign Up for Home Buy Direct :

Demand from first-time buyers in London for a government homebuying scheme has been so high that developers think that they are in danger of running out of stock by summer..........The Housing Minister, Margaret Beckett, said that demand has been three times the amount the Government expected. Barratt, one of the developers included in the £400 million scheme, said that 20,000 potential buyers have registered their interest in buying one of its homes this way.

Next we hear Politician in Row over Home Buy Direct Scheme :

Housing minister Margaret Beckett has denied the Opposition's claims that no properties have been sold through the government's HomeBuy Direct scheme.

The scheme was announced last September as part of a £1bn housing package and offered first-time buyers earning less than £60,000 a chance to get on the housing ladder via shared equity home ownership...............

But following the Budget, Conservative leader David Cameron launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Gordon Brown and chancellor Alistair Darling.

Cameron quotes Beckett's res- ponse to shadow housing minister Grant Shapps on the HomeBuy Direct scheme on March 24 2009, as recorded on Hansard, that "not a single sale had been made" since the scheme's inception.

But Beckett now claims this is not the case, saying that although there are no solid figures she has met "at least one couple" that has participated in the scheme.

So at at time of potential huge house price falls she then promotes a government scheme whereby they were going to give FTB's that cannot afford deposits the equivalent of 100% mortgages, she then went on to say :

[

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett yesterday sparked fears of new property price falls when she said it was mad to say the market had reached the bottom.

She said there were signs new buyers were expressing interest.

But the senior minister warned: "Any politician who said we have hit the bottom of the market would be insane. Everybody is saying things are very difficult."

And then we hear Home buyers left in lurch as state help is exhausted

First-time buyers using a government scheme to get on the housing ladder have had to pull out of purchases at the eleventh hour after funding ran out.

The Government said that the sudden shortage of cash was a result of the huge demand for its MyChoice Homebuy scheme, which enables buyers who do not have enough money for a deposit to obtain a mortgage with the Government stumping up the balance.

Some would-be buyers had already had offers on properties accepted and had instructed solicitors when they learnt that their previously accepted applications would no longer be successful, forcing them to back out of the transaction.

Experts on affordable housing said that funding issues would leave thousands of buyers who thought that they had been given the green light unable to proceed, because the way in which the application process works means that funding is allocated only once the buyer has found a property.

OH DEAR ! But can't help feeling all those first time buyers will THANK THEIR LUCKY STARS eventually.

So what is Brown up to? Is he trying to find some people who will RAMP the market, allow him to spend even more money the UK hasn't got or what?

[Minos]

I was going to suggest downing your drink every time a minister resigned, but that could put us all under the table within minutes

I do wish you'd remove that d!ck from your picture old boy.

[Hip to be bear]

I do wish you'd remove that d!ck from your picture old boy.

Are you talking to me???

[Sybil13]

I do wish you'd remove that d!ck from your picture old boy.

What do you suggest to replace it? Perhaps a picture of Brown's reshuffle to include Balls?