John Redwood Wants Your Hpc Solutions

[Lambie]

John Redwood is MP for Wokingham and Conservative Party's Policy Review Group on Economic Competitiveness - and apparently relatively sane, for a politician.

He has just done a blog post about HPC in which he accepts there is a problem and invites ideas for your solutions http://www.johnredwo...able-housing-2/ which I encourage you all to reply on - he does read the comments personally.

I've seen a lot of threads around lately saying "what can we do" - I would say persuading the likes of John of our case is a critical part of that, policies in parties only change slowly by chipping away at them and John will have some influence if he remains in the Torys win and he remains in the economics team. Ken Clarke mentioned the house price bubble on Question Time on thursday too. Perhaps there's a glimmer of hope.

[TeddyBear]

John Redwood is MP for Wokingham and Conservative Party's Policy Review Group on Economic Competitiveness - and apparently relatively sane, for a politician.

He has just done a blog post about HPC in which he accepts there is a problem and invites ideas for your solutions http://www.johnredwo...able-housing-2/ which I encourage you all to reply on - he does read the comments personally.

I've seen a lot of threads around lately saying "what can we do" - I would say persuading the likes of John of our case is a critical part of that, policies in parties only change slowly by chipping away at them and John will have some influence if he remains in the Torys win and he remains in the economics team. Ken Clarke mentioned the house price bubble on Question Time on thursday too. Perhaps there's a glimmer of hope.

Thanks for highlighting this. Have posted

[Guest sillybear2]

Reform the Town and Country Planning Act, tell the little nimbies in the shires it's in their best longterm interest to allow development in their areas. Without balanced demographics things will collapse. The chances of people actually looking beyond the end of their noses? Practically zero.

Look at the aftermath of the banking crisis and the lack of real structural changes resulting from that, nothing will ever change. It'll be more of the same until they finally go too far.

[Goat]

Simple, stop pretending there's anything you can do and let HPC happen.

[clockslinger]

John Redwood is MP for Wokingham and Conservative Party's Policy Review Group on Economic Competitiveness - and apparently relatively sane, for a politician.

He has just done a blog post about HPC in which he accepts there is a problem and invites ideas for your solutions http://www.johnredwo...able-housing-2/ which I encourage you all to reply on - he does read the comments personally.

I've seen a lot of threads around lately saying "what can we do" - I would say persuading the likes of John of our case is a critical part of that, policies in parties only change slowly by chipping away at them and John will have some influence if he remains in the Torys win and he remains in the economics team. Ken Clarke mentioned the house price bubble on Question Time on thursday too. Perhaps there's a glimmer of hope.

I am not gouing to sugar the pill here. There is NOTHING WHATSOEVER you can "do" readers, don't allow yourselves to be fooled by this blatent set piece of Tory propagand. Either the fundamentals will cause a collapse in prices or they won't ...and if you think it is to do with supply and demand consider Japan and the fact that the "demand" was predicated not on need for places to live but speculation on capital increase with money supplied by an unregulated shadow banking sector which has gone, in that form, for good.

Don't agree? Well, I just advise anyone thinking that the repulsive Redwood will do anything to reduce social inequality in housing to review his record as part of the last Tory government...(maybe you are too young to remember the last massive Thatcher HP bubble but this joker was a real pin up boy for of the poor hating Sloanes...just like Tebbit and Lilly).

As for the learned contributions on the site you will love the totally objective observations of the developer unsurprisingly wanting a relaxation of planning and another deluded soul suggesting TAX BREAKS FOR BUY TO LET...admittedly something considered by both the Tory and Nu Lab greed merchants. You will also see tin the FT today a piece confirming that the Tories also plan to return tax breaks to holiday home owners (presently being removed) should they win the election. That'll sort it then!

What I didn't see was any mention of compulsory utilisation of empty properties, tax disincentives for multiple house owning or the like. It is just a bit more electioneering and, happily, if you read this site for facts and statistics on the housing market or in the hope of finding info which will help you to buy a place to live, you can safely ignore it...(or read it and weep about what quality policies will be on offer if the Tories win, I guess!)

Oh, and one other thing, John Redwood, I absolutely assure you, does not give a f**k about you or the fact you can't afford a house, are unhappy, have lost your job, can't repay your student loan, or anything else aout your troubles... anymore than Tony Blair did or Margaret Thatcher did before that. What he and they care about is getting you to vote for them so they get elected and can get more directorships and consultancies from their criminal friends in the city. Those are the "facts".

[oracle]

Simple, stop pretending there's anything you can do and let HPC happen.

how much do we pay these guys?

the solution is very very simple indeed.

the endless barrage of propaganda must not be backed up by putting fingers in dykes.

the toxins have to be flushed out.

if there were a policy to adopt now that would benefit the country it would be a BTL/multihome tax multiplier.

council tax collected by land registry(and dependent on quantity of property owned) at source.......no triplicate form filling.

likewise with tax credits.......increase the tax-free threshold considerably and dispense with the means-testing paperwork.

hardly rocket science is it?....you would have thought that these think tanks that get paid millions of pounds of taxpayes money would have had some intelligence.

..of course there is now no such thing as failure,so they reap the benefit of not knowing how good their applicants are,because all of them achieved distinction in their respective field.

(20 years ago they might have just about scraped grade C at O level.)

false economy or what?

it is either the work of extreme incompetence or malevolent genius.

(my money is on the latter,because becoming THIS crap takes practice)

Edited April 3, 2010 by oracle

[dryrot]

I am not gouing to sugar the pill here. There is NOTHING WHATSOEVER you can "do" readers, don't allow yourselves to be fooled by this blatent set piece of Tory propagand. Either the fundamentals will cause a collapse in prices or they won't ...and if you think it is to do with supply and demand consider Japan and the fact that the "demand" was predicated not on need for places to live but speculation on capital increase with money supplied by an unregulated shadow banking sector which has gone, in that form, for good.

Don't agree? Well, I just advise anyone thinking that the repulsive Redwood will do anything to reduce social inequality in housing to review his record as part of the last Tory government...(maybe you are too young to remember the last massive Thatcher HP bubble but this joker was a real pin up boy for of the poor hating Sloanes...just like Tebbit and Lilly).

Deeply offensive garbage. The Tories choked off HPI by raising IRs - and it cost them politically. Compare that you leftwing Labour under Gordo, who never tried to stop it. Are you saying Redwood is a "Sloane" BTW?

Oh, and one other thing, John Redwood, I absolutely assure you, does not give a f**k about you or the fact you can't afford a house, are unhappy, have lost your job, can't repay your student loan, or anything else aout your troubles... anymore than Tony Blair did or Margaret Thatcher did before that. What he and they care about is getting you to vote for them so they get elected and can get more directorships and consultancies from their criminal friends in the city. Those are the "facts".

Not true. I know Mr Redwood. But I take your point on the holiday-homes-tax-break and will feed it back.

[slacker]

Lambie - thanks for that link, there are some high quality ideas in the comments.

"Stop giving housing benefit in over populated areas, move the people to less costly areas thus increasing supply and reducing demand."

"the British should not be surprised if the next generation move towards communism because it will be the only way they can get their hands on a decent standard of living"

"Move tax to being based on square footage and property values so those who have big houses pay more."

"Transferring the burden of tax back onto land from labour and capital"

"need folk in state housing to be able to move for work between towns much more easily"

I do like ideas that reduce income tax and increase on where you spend it.

[Guest sillybear2]

Does Redwood still want to toll the motorways and trunk roads and sell them off to rent seeking parasites in The City?

[Zngland]

Inflation is needed, of the wages kind. That cures deflation.

[SNACR]

I am not gouing to sugar the pill here. There is NOTHING WHATSOEVER you can "do" readers, don't allow yourselves to be fooled by this blatent set piece of Tory propagand. Either the fundamentals will cause a collapse in prices or they won't ...and if you think it is to do with supply and demand consider Japan and the fact that the "demand" was predicated not on need for places to live but speculation on capital increase with money supplied by an unregulated shadow banking sector which has gone, in that form, for good.

Don't agree? Well, I just advise anyone thinking that the repulsive Redwood will do anything to reduce social inequality in housing to review his record as part of the last Tory government...(maybe you are too young to remember the last massive Thatcher HP bubble but this joker was a real pin up boy for of the poor hating Sloanes...just like Tebbit and Lilly).

As for the learned contributions on the site you will love the totally objective observations of the developer unsurprisingly wanting a relaxation of planning and another deluded soul suggesting TAX BREAKS FOR BUY TO LET...admittedly something considered by both the Tory and Nu Lab greed merchants. You will also see tin the FT today a piece confirming that the Tories also plan to return tax breaks to holiday home owners (presently being removed) should they win the election. That'll sort it then!

What I didn't see was any mention of compulsory utilisation of empty properties, tax disincentives for multiple house owning or the like. It is just a bit more electioneering and, happily, if you read this site for facts and statistics on the housing market or in the hope of finding info which will help you to buy a place to live, you can safely ignore it...(or read it and weep about what quality policies will be on offer if the Tories win, I guess!)

Oh, and one other thing, John Redwood, I absolutely assure you, does not give a f**k about you or the fact you can't afford a house, are unhappy, have lost your job, can't repay your student loan, or anything else aout your troubles... anymore than Tony Blair did or Margaret Thatcher did before that. What he and they care about is getting you to vote for them so they get elected and can get more directorships and consultancies from their criminal friends in the city. Those are the "facts".

This is arrant nonsense and ill-informed tribalist smears.

I used to live in John Redwood's constituency and met him on a number of occasions and have found him to be thoughtful seemingly genuine.

I take it you've never been to Wokingham as, if you had, you'd know John Redwood is a popular local MP with what I would think is zero chance of not getting re-elected and is not a supporter of the Cameron project so I would think is one of the least interested in currying votes for the wider party nationally.

He is unfairly criticised for suggesting lighter mortgage regulation pre-crash. However, this is because of a firm belief in home-ownership rather than a wish to stoke HPI. I concede though that he, like many, many others, probably did not accept that HPI was a bad, socially divisive thing during the boom years.

Edit to add: This is not an endorsement of the Conservative party, FFS do not vote for them in any marginal constituencies.

Edited April 3, 2010 by Soon Not a Chain Retailer

[Guest sillybear2]

He is unfairly criticised for suggesting lighter mortgage regulation pre-crash. However, this is because of a firm belief in home-ownership rather than a wish to stoke HPI. I concede though that he, like many, many others, probably did not accept that HPI was a bad, socially divisive thing during the boom years.

Right, and nothing to do with his parasitic chums in The City, the same people who have now socialised more losses than Pol Pot.

[Executive Sadman]

Lower interest rates, because 0.5% just isnt low enough

More shared ownership, as paying a mortgage, premium, rent and management fees sounds such a great deal

Less housebuilding because we're a green and pleasant land and my views are more important than people living in their own homes

Get rid of stamp duty because housing is grossly overtaxed. Put it on VAT and beer because that affects the poor most

Sell off any remaining council houses, spend proceeds on reducing top rate of income tax.

Extend Mortgage support to borrowers of over £1million, and landlords.

Less rights for tentants, no deposit security, immediate eviction ability

This will be tory housing policy, 100% guaranteed.

Theyve got Krusty

Theyve already hinted at tax relief for 2nd/holiday homes.

My above predictions are probably optimistic.

Dont know about Redwood, but theres good people in Liebour too. Frank Field, Kate Hoey, i guess in some ways Clare Short. They ALWAYS get marginalized.

[Laughing Gnome]

I am not gouing to sugar the pill here. There is NOTHING WHATSOEVER you can "do" readers, don't allow yourselves to be fooled by this blatent set piece of Tory propagand. Either the fundamentals will cause a collapse in prices or they won't ...and if you think it is to do with supply and demand consider Japan and the fact that the "demand" was predicated not on need for places to live but speculation on capital increase with money supplied by an unregulated shadow banking sector which has gone, in that form, for good.

Don't agree? Well, I just advise anyone thinking that the repulsive Redwood will do anything to reduce social inequality in housing to review his record as part of the last Tory government...(maybe you are too young to remember the last massive Thatcher HP bubble but this joker was a real pin up boy for of the poor hating Sloanes...just like Tebbit and Lilly).

As for the learned contributions on the site you will love the totally objective observations of the developer unsurprisingly wanting a relaxation of planning and another deluded soul suggesting TAX BREAKS FOR BUY TO LET...admittedly something considered by both the Tory and Nu Lab greed merchants. You will also see tin the FT today a piece confirming that the Tories also plan to return tax breaks to holiday home owners (presently being removed) should they win the election. That'll sort it then!

What I didn't see was any mention of compulsory utilisation of empty properties, tax disincentives for multiple house owning or the like. It is just a bit more electioneering and, happily, if you read this site for facts and statistics on the housing market or in the hope of finding info which will help you to buy a place to live, you can safely ignore it...(or read it and weep about what quality policies will be on offer if the Tories win, I guess!)

Oh, and one other thing, John Redwood, I absolutely assure you, does not give a f**k about you or the fact you can't afford a house, are unhappy, have lost your job, can't repay your student loan, or anything else aout your troubles... anymore than Tony Blair did or Margaret Thatcher did before that. What he and they care about is getting you to vote for them so they get elected and can get more directorships and consultancies from their criminal friends in the city. Those are the "facts".

Exactly what he said.

[slacker]

This will be tory housing policy, 100% guaranteed.

If you were around in the 80s you will remember what life was like before and during Thatcher. For many 18-35 year olds it was a time of great opportunity.

If they do get in, workers at all levels will be a lot better off for direct pay (unless you work in public sector).

It's quite ironic that the younger generation are quite socialist currently and likely to benefit most from a Conservative government (lower tax and more enterprise), and the older (Tory voting) generation are likely to benefit less as they are more likely to need state services which are almost certainly going to regress.

[Cogs]

http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/08/28/house-prices-down-10-more-to-come/

I heard this morning that UK house prices are now down by more than 10% so far this year. I listened in vain for a government Minister to come on to claim success from their policy. For years Ministers have told us we needed to make houses more affordable. They have become mighty shy now their policy of starving the Money markets of cash last summer and nationalising the UK’s most aggressive lending bank, Northern Rock, is delivering lower house prices with a vengeance.

Could it be that they have at last worked out that lower house prices do not automaticallly make houses more affordable, if there are too few mrotgages to buy them with? Could it be that at last they understand there is one thing worse than house prices soaring, and that is house prices falling?

[SNACR]

Dont know about Redwood, but theres good people in Liebour too. Frank Field, Kate Hoey, i guess in some ways Clare Short. They ALWAYS get marginalized.

There are a minority of politicians in all parties who don't just parrot the party line and take a more honest and considered view.

I certainly don't agree with John Redwood on quite a lot and if he ever became Chancellor he'd still privatise anything he could lay his lay his hands on, like the last time the Tories were in power, having still not understood privatised monopolies does not equal free market.

The policies of a poltician of a particular stripe are now almost impossible to divine. I was listening to Any Questions on the way home last night and it appears UKIP's drugs policy is to legalise them which leaves the traditional lib/lab progressives and the aspirationally progressive Tories looking rather reactionary,

[porca misèria]

Thanks for the heads-up. Since this could be the eyes of a future TPTB, I've taken the trouble to post a long, five-point reply. Posting here for the record, in case he/his team rejects it at moderation:

1. Fix the credit market

The “credit crunch” has demonstrated that the principal driver for house prices is supply and demand, not of housing, but of credit. Yet we’ve lived on a fantasyland monetary system, where interest rates – the driver of credit – stayed low while money supply let rip. All because we took a meaningless price index (or should I say an index of the rise of Chinese cheap manufacturing?) and called it “inflation”.

Recommendation: If interest rates are your monetary policy instrument of choice, then tie them to M4 money supply, not to RPI/CPI.

Right now, higher interest rates would improve the market by incentivising owners of empty homes (e.g. those who have moved or inherited and are under no pressure) to put them on the market, thus boosting supply. I may well be wrong here, but didn’t the number of empty homes rise from about 1 million to 1.3 million in just a year of “credit crunch”?

2. Support home saving

As it stands, we have some very perverse incentives. Stretch to a mortgage beyond your means, and lots of taxpayer help is available if you need it, and the asset is completely excluded from means-testing. But save money to buy a house, and you exclude yourself from all means-tested benefits if your income is interrupted, until your deposit is gone.

Proposal: a class of homesaver account, available to anyone who is renting in the UK, and which is protected against means-testing and tax, thus putting it on an equal footing with owning a home. To prevent abuse it is ring-fenced for house purchase, with the alternative of transferring to a pension fund if your circumstances change (e.g. you move in permanently to a partner’s house). Saving/investment options could be based on current rules for ISAs or SIPPs.

3. Stop pouring public money in.

Every round of “social housing” picks a few winners (no doubt needy/deserving except where there’s corruption), but leaves others all the more excluded. That includes schemes like special mortgage support, which is even now keeping non-owners priced out.

At least some of the taxpayers whose privilege it is to pay are people who can only dream of living anywhere that nice. In the rentals market, it’s very frustrating to have to compete with people whose benefits will pay much more than a self-funding renter can afford.

Conclusion: ALL benefits should be linked to local markets, not to actual costs paid, so that recipients are incentivised to look for lower prices along with the self-funding. And the rates should not be such as to push the market upwards: there should be an expectation that you are better-off working than claiming.

The logic of our benefits regime is exemplified in cases like http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2009/09/16/birmingham-city-council-refuses-to-buy-city-centre-apartments-because-they-don-t-meet-their-standards-97319-24699925/ of private sector housing that falls far short of minimal standards for social housing.

I encountered this myself as a young graduate in the 1980s, when I found myself paying two thirds of my post-tax income for a room in a shared house in a rough area, without luxuries like working hot water. My income (pre-tax) was more than six times higher than my student grant had been, but in reality I was poorer due to losing use of student housing.

4. Fix the tax system

Owner-occupiers pay zero tax other than stamp duty (council tax being tied to occupancy, not ownership). Landlords (including the whole new class of spivs to arise in the boom) pay at most 18% capital gains when their leveraged bet rises. Yet anyone working hard to save for a house pays well over 40% in tax (20% headline, 11% + 13% “National insurance”), and rates up to 76% for above-average earners.

This leads to the logic of my calculation of three years ago, which shows a basic state pension plus ownership of an average house (in an environment of house price inflation) to be worth an earned income of £95155 + benefits: http://bahumbug.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/minimum-pension-95155-salary/

My best proposal here is a land tax, to replace both council tax and business rates. This is justified by the fact that land is precisely the limited resource we can’t just produce more of, and my exclusive rights over one patch deprives the rest of the world (plus the environmental and infrastructure costs of building). My colleague in Illinois pays $4k/year on a $170k house and regards that as perfectly normal; I understand he more-than compensates for that (compared to the UK) by lower taxes on other activities including his hard-earned.

5. Better protection for renters, to make it a more attractive option.

Landlords must be protected against the tenant from hell: this is the motivation for the AST, and in its time it did the job of improving the supply of property available for rent. Now there’s a much bigger, healthier rental market, we need a partial reversal, and the correction of some anomalies.

The partial reversal is that a tenant in good standing deserves much more than two months notice to find a new home when a landlord wants a house back, and should not be liable for rent beyond the day of leaving. Of course this only applies where a landlord gives notice to quit; current rules are fine for the more usual case where the tenant is the one to give notice. Landlords need the courts protection against delinquent tenants, not the right to rapid possession against good tenants.

On a related note, the abuse of Section 21 notices (usually by agents) should be outlawed.

Finally, the major anomaly that needs to be dealt with is the case of a lender repossessing a landlord’s property, when the tenant may not even have notice of the bailiffs! The tenant should be able to register an interest, which will bind any lenders to the landlord’s side of the tenancy in the event of reposession. Where there is fraud involved (e.g. a landlord in breach of mortgage terms that don’t permit letting), it can be sorted and prosecuted early rather than sprung on the tenant without notice.

[Olebrum]

I am not gouing to sugar the pill here. There is NOTHING WHATSOEVER you can "do" readers, don't allow yourselves to be fooled by this blatent set piece of Tory propaganda............. What he and they care about is getting you to vote for them so they get elected and can get more directorships and consultancies from their criminal friends in the city. Those are the "facts".

Well said.

I remember the odious Mr Redwood last time around.

[Guest sillybear2]

Well said.

I remember the odious Mr Redwood last time around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIwBvjoLyZc

[tomwatkins]

I am not gouing to sugar the pill here. There is NOTHING WHATSOEVER you can "do" readers, don't allow yourselves to be fooled by this blatent set piece of Tory propagand. Either the fundamentals will cause a collapse in prices or they won't ...and if you think it is to do with supply and demand consider Japan and the fact that the "demand" was predicated not on need for places to live but speculation on capital increase with money supplied by an unregulated shadow banking sector which has gone, in that form, for good.

Don't agree? Well, I just advise anyone thinking that the repulsive Redwood will do anything to reduce social inequality in housing to review his record as part of the last Tory government...(maybe you are too young to remember the last massive Thatcher HP bubble but this joker was a real pin up boy for of the poor hating Sloanes...just like Tebbit and Lilly).

As for the learned contributions on the site you will love the totally objective observations of the developer unsurprisingly wanting a relaxation of planning and another deluded soul suggesting TAX BREAKS FOR BUY TO LET...admittedly something considered by both the Tory and Nu Lab greed merchants. You will also see tin the FT today a piece confirming that the Tories also plan to return tax breaks to holiday home owners (presently being removed) should they win the election. That'll sort it then!

What I didn't see was any mention of compulsory utilisation of empty properties, tax disincentives for multiple house owning or the like. It is just a bit more electioneering and, happily, if you read this site for facts and statistics on the housing market or in the hope of finding info which will help you to buy a place to live, you can safely ignore it...(or read it and weep about what quality policies will be on offer if the Tories win, I guess!)

Oh, and one other thing, John Redwood, I absolutely assure you, does not give a f**k about you or the fact you can't afford a house, are unhappy, have lost your job, can't repay your student loan, or anything else aout your troubles... anymore than Tony Blair did or Margaret Thatcher did before that. What he and they care about is getting you to vote for them so they get elected and can get more directorships and consultancies from their criminal friends in the city. Those are the "facts".

Don't mince words man-tell it like it is.

[tomwatkins]

Pity we don't have a Ron Paul in the UK. Any politician that doesn't list 'monetary reform in his/her agenda is a toothless shyster. Not one of them understands the problem probably, including Cable.

[mbga9pgf]

Pity we don't have a Ron Paul in the UK. Any politician that doesn't list 'monetary reform in his/her agenda is a toothless shyster. Not one of them understands the problem probably, including Cable.

Some excellent comments on there now!

F*cking stick it to them. They know there is significant social unrest coming their way, far more than they would get with some old scrote complaining about his countryside view being disrupted by a few extra houses.

Edited April 3, 2010 by mbga9pgf

[Cicero]

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=RIwBvjoLyZc

That was a cringeworthy performance wasn't it?

[tomwatkins]

That was a cringeworthy performance wasn't it?

Bleedin hell. They didn't call him "The Vulcan" for nothing.