NEO72 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 This has been mentioned in another thread but felt a call to arms needed another. Grant Shapps is meeting a collection of VIs on 15th Feb to discuss the "plight" of first-time buyers: Mortgage Rate & Home Loan News: Minister to demand more options for first time buyers UK mortgage lending firms are set to appear before housing minister Grant Shapps to discuss why they are not approving loans to first time property buyers. The government minister commented: "We want to do more to help aspiring first time buyers - the average age of the first-time buyer with no support from their family is now 37, and there are 1.4 million households who aspire to own a home but are simply unable to do so because of house prices and mortgage availability." He noted that "creative solutions" will be required to ensure that young people are not locked out of the housing market, rather than top-down government diktats. The summit with key industry figures is scheduled to take place on February 15th. Meanwhile, research from the British Bankers' Association revealed that net UK mortgage offers fell last month to an 11-year low, with bank lending during 2010 44 per cent lower than it had been the previous year. Now obviously they will be pressuring him to offer all sorts of incentives to FTBs to prop up the housing ponzi and who knows, maybe he does think this is what FTBs want. Well here's your chance to tell him what you want - you can send him comments via his website (some good comments there already): Shapps' official website And here's my effort: Dear Mr Shapps I understand that the Government is calling a meeting on the 15th February to discuss the 'plight' of first time home buyers. The first thing that struck me was that there will be no representatives of FTBs present at the meeting, rather, a collection of individuals representing industries largely reliant on maintaining high house prices. The problem is painfully simple: housing costs are too high - pumped up through a decade of lax lending policies caused by insufficient regulation of mortgage lenders. The solution is equally simple: allow housing costs to fall to a sustainable level - a generation of FTBs will thank you for it, housing costs (i.e. rents and mortgage repayments) will be lower and people will have more disposable income with which to stimulate the economy back to growth. I'm sure if you resist the pressure (and there will be plenty) to intervene, and allow the correction to happen, you will also find that, as prices level out, the banks will ease their lending restrictions since they no longer need to price in the considerable risks of lending on overinflated assets. The alternative, as Im sure you must be aware is to keep the housing bubble artificially inflated through the use of various incentives for FTBs who are of course required to prop up house prices. The only outcome of this however will be to leave even more FTBs with debt millstones and store up even greater trouble when interest rates begin rising. So get writing people, it only takes a few minutes (you don't even need to log in) we don't have anyone representing our interests so when we get the opportunity to try and make ourselves heard we should take it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumpy Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I've done it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlinkTooFast Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyHead Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 (edited) Done. Edited February 3, 2011 by worst time buyer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miko Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Me to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambie Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Letters will not do you any good An angry mob outside chanting, still won't do you any good, might get you on the news. "what do we want" "an equitable market based on a sensible ratio of price to income, with moral hazard for those who fraudulently gained mortgages through liar loans" "when do we want it?" "sometime in the next 3 - 5 years would be lovely" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Ap Word Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Replied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pent Up Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Already posted mine at the weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric pebble Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Grant Shapps is meeting a collection of VIs on 15th Feb to discuss the "plight" of first-time buyers: Now obviously they will be pressuring him to offer all sorts of incentives to FTBs to prop up the housing ponzi and who knows, maybe he does think this is what FTBs want. "...The problem is painfully simple: housing costs are too high - pumped up through a decade of lax FRAUDULENT lending policies caused by insufficient regulation of mortgage lenders, allowing MORTGAGE FRAUD ON A VAST SCALE in the form of TOXIC PREDATORY LIAR LOANS to put rocket fuel into the "market" and artificially boost prices to absurd and unsustainable levels.... " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beggar Thy Children Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Just done it, my comment is awaiting moderation. Doesn't contain anything other than politely stated opinion, but I'll be surprised if it makes it through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEO72 Posted February 3, 2011 Author Share Posted February 3, 2011 Letters will not do you any good An angry mob outside chanting, still won't do you any good, might get you on the news. "what do we want" "an equitable market based on a sensible ratio of price to income, with moral hazard for those who fraudulently gained mortgages through liar loans" "when do we want it?" "sometime in the next 3 - 5 years would be lovely" Maybe it will, maybe it won't - but its better than doing NOTHING. Now toddle along, I think x-factors starting. God, I can't fvcking stand apathy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tired of Waiting Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 (...) Well here's your chance to tell him what you want - you can send him comments via his website (some good comments there already): Shapps' official website (...) So get writing people, it only takes a few minutes (you don't even need to log in) we don't have anyone representing our interests so when we get the opportunity to try and make ourselves heard we should take it. Very good idea NEO72. By the way, what about that FTB pressure group, "PricedOut"? Are they active? Effective? I've just Googled them, and found this, below. It sounded very / too mild for me. PricedOut welcomes government pledge to slow house price increasesPricedOut welcomes recent comments from the Housing Minister Grant Shapps that the government would seek to prevent run away house price inflation and ensure that house prices rose slower than wage inflation in the coming years. http://www.pricedout.org.uk/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pent Up Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Very good idea NEO72. By the way, what about that FTB pressure group, "PricedOut"? Are they active? Effective? I've just Googled them, and found this, below. It sounded very / too mild for me. http://www.pricedout.org.uk/ Their forum is normally dead. They did ask us for suggestions for future campaign ideas a while back. Might be worth giving them a template letter to Schapps for their members to post? I don't know if they realise that under Shapps "below wage inflation HPI" it would take 20 years for prices to become adfordable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pent Up Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Very good idea NEO72. By the way, what about that FTB pressure group, "PricedOut"? Are they active? Effective? I've just Googled them, and found this, below. It sounded very / too mild for me. http://www.pricedout.org.uk/ I've just posted in their forum http://www.pricedout.org.uk/Forum/tabid/56/forumid/1/view/topic/postid/9654/Default.aspx Although I seem to have a problem with paragraphs or lack of. Must be something to do with the iPhone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constable Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 (edited) I tried this before after his interview on C4 news in October re BTL: I corrected his quote: "It is in everyone's interest to have stable lower house prices for a long timeever, because the only way we can make sure housing is more affordable for future generations is not to have these crazy housing booms to allow a significant correction to occur." and told them to tax BTL scum properly. I got this standard reply from his office a few weeks later: I appreciate the concerns that you raise regarding the current housing market. The Government wants to establish a market where house prices are stable and predictable. People should be able to buy a home that they need and want, where they can feel safe, comfortable and happy.Achieving this depends above all on the return to economic and financial stability which the Government is seeking to achieve through debt reduction and its commitment to abolish the structural deficit. This will help to keep interest rates low, improve credit availability and free up lending to FTBs and others. Ensuring responsible lending and borrowing practices will also be vital to the stability of the market. The Government is committed to supporting homeownership but we also recognise a strong private rental sector is required to provide a flexible alternative and Buy to Let (BTL) properties make an important contribution. The Government wants to retain incentives to save and invest in capital assets (such as BTL properties) while ensuring a fairer tax system and so raised the top rate of capital gains tax to 28 per cent in the last Budget. The Government wants to encourage everyone involved in the housing market to work together to ensure that the conditions which created the recent housing bubble are never repeated and we move back to a more sustainable and stable market. I emailed back and called them a bunch of bl00dy idiots, but never heard from them again. Edited February 3, 2011 by Constable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumpy Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Just done it, my comment is awaiting moderation. Doesn't contain anything other than politely stated opinion, but I'll be surprised if it makes it through. Moderation is taking an eternity. I posted yeasterday afternoon and its still not got through. Stuck on post 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pent Up Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Moderation is taking an eternity. I posted yeasterday afternoon and its still not got through. Stuck on post 12 They don't work after 3 pm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richcrashman Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Done my bit. Come on everyone take the time to leave a message, even if only a short one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tired of Waiting Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 (...) I emailed back and called them a bunch of bl00dy idiots, but never heard from them again. Excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfie Moon Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 (edited) Excellent idea from NEO72. How about as many of us as possible writing similar letters to the National Newspapers 'Letters To The Editor' pages so that as many letters as possible get published and seen and read by both the public and politicians? As well as aiming directly at Shapps I think pressure has to be built up by making the issue as visible as possible. In these letters, and e-mails to Shapps, I would suggest that as well as stressing the plight of a whole generation of young adults (potential FTB'ers) it is also the majority of mortgage holders that are currently priced out of moving up the property ladder. I would also stress the point about how current levels of house prices, now and over the boom years, have sucked gigantic amounts of money, credit, investment away from productive areas of the economy and given many huge mortgages that leave them with little/nothing to spend in ways that support other areas of the economy. All these issues will be helped by prices coming down - other suggested solutions such as shared ownership, etc. schemes will just ensure that the economy remains disasterously unbalanced. Edited February 3, 2011 by Alfie Moon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richcrashman Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Excellent idea from NEO72. How about as many of us as possible writing similar letters to the National Newspapers 'Letters To The Editor' pages so that as many letters as possible get published and seen and read by both the public and politicians? As well as aiming directly at Shapps I think pressure has to be built up by making the issue as visible as possible. Yes we should all write as much as possible. I take every opportunity to write in any comments sections etc etc. We need to spread the word a little wider than our forum here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Oh dear. Looks like Sibley or one of his kin have been there under the guise of RB: Realistbear says:February 3rd, 2011 at 9:19 am Grant, Please pay no attention to the views of the people on here who have dedicated their lives to engineering UK house prices though their internet campaign on major media and government sites. They organise themselves through a website which sole purpose is to spread bad news in a pathetic attempt to panic the public and sway popular opinion. They feed on the misery of broken families and repossessed homes; patting each other the back every time another hard working person is thrown out on to the street. These individuals are driven by their own greed. They feel it is there right to demand that they jump the queue, not to have to work to own a home or wait for wage inflation to return as other have had to do in the past. Some sold their homes and rented in an attempt to make a quick buck from the market as prices fell. They failed in this respect and misjudged the outcome. Again, greed fuels their desire to see the market on its knees. Please, pay no attention. Their opinion does not reflect that of the majority of the UK public. They merely have more time on their hands that your average working person. @rsehole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ames Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Done, awaiting moderation Wow! good comments so far. Ames Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzzardo Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Done. I love the way that the "Pro-Value lobby" (that's us BTW - maybe we could use that as a handle rather than "HPC" on external debates?) can put a decent reasoned argument forward, with some facts to back it up, but the pro-HPI bunch haven't got anything to say except "pathetic attempt" "STR losers" "revelling in others' misery" and "just one website with a VI." Still, nice to see they are clearly getting the wind* up, even if they've nothing intelligent to say! B * as in "pinned," not as in "bind" - nobody's interested in winding them up - but I love to see them scared Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyHead Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Wow, we're up to 33 comments on his website so far. Well done everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.