New Channel 4 Prog - THE GREAT BRITISH PROPERTY SCANDAL

[TigerAspect]

Architect George Clarke leads Empty Homes Campaign

Does your area need better housing conditions? Want to do something about it?

Channel 4's George Clarke is presenting a new TV series which will campaign on housing issues across the UK. The campaign offers you the chance to share your housing problems and join the search for solutions.

Across the country high rental costs, long waiting lists for council houses and difficulty getting mortgages are forcing many people to live in cramped conditions, stay with friends or family, and give up the dream of owning their own home.

It’s been described as a national housing crisis - ordinary families are being priced out of the market and there are 5 million people on the house waiting list. Yet, a million homes in this country lie empty. George’s campaign aims to combat the housing crisis, and one of the key questions we’re asking is: Could empty homes be put to better use?

If you, or anyone you know, is struggling your housing situation, or want to find out more about the campaign, contact the Homes team:

Email: homes@tigeraspect.co.uk

or

Call the Homes team on: 0207 544 1663

[Tired of Waiting]

Architect George Clarke leads Empty Homes Campaign

Does your area need better housing conditions? Want to do something about it?

Channel 4's George Clarke is presenting a new TV series which will campaign on housing issues across the UK. The campaign offers you the chance to share your housing problems and join the search for solutions.

Across the country high rental costs, long waiting lists for council houses and difficulty getting mortgages are forcing many people to live in cramped conditions, stay with friends or family, and give up the dream of owning their own home.

It’s been described as a national housing crisis - ordinary families are being priced out of the market and there are 5 million people on the house waiting list. Yet, a million homes in this country lie empty. George’s campaign aims to combat the housing crisis, and one of the key questions we’re asking is: Could empty homes be put to better use?

(...)

Yes, tax them high.

For instance:

Double Council tax if a property is empty for more than 6 months.

Double again if over 1 year.

Double again if over 2 years.

Repeat, until the Council owns the property.

If you really want to help, campaign for something in this general direction.

.

Edited June 27, 2011 by Tired of Waiting

[juvenal]

Tiger Aspect are major players. This programme will get made.

I think we should respond in numbers to this, identifying the major housing problems we all know so well.

Number 1 being: They are too ******* expensive!!!

[Tired of Waiting]

Tiger Aspect are major players. This programme will get made.

I think we should respond in numbers to this, identifying the major housing problems we all know so well.

Number 1 being: They are too ******* expensive!!!

+ 1

Ok...

Architect George Clarke leads Empty Homes Campaign

Homes team on: 0207 544 1663[/b]

Demand boosted by too much and too cheap credit,

+

Supply blocked by the planning system

= Prices went up.

As someone said recently here, "It's not rocket science really". (Was it Tomandlu? IIRC).

If one wants to see what happens when these two factors are the other way round (regulated mortgages + liberal planning), just look to Germany.

[rantnrave]

If this show pushes LLL off the airwaves, then I'll watch every episode and make a concerted effort to buy the products advertised during the breaks.

[SarahBell]

If this show pushes LLL off the airwaves, then I'll watch every episode and make a concerted effort to buy the products advertised during the breaks.

You don't think it'll be B&Q ads for super folding doors?

Possibles...

1. Council waiting lists are massive. Why? Cheaper rents and secure tenancies.

2. Empty properties. What's the real number and the real cost to communities?

3. Holiday homes. Good or bad for local communities? Look at the number of school closures driving potenial owner occupiers away.

4. Bad landlords.

5. The aging population hanging on to their now-unsuitable homes.

6. Energy crisis. Why houses aren't being made to insulate, get solar energy etc.

7. HMO - why more and more people under 35 are being forced to shared, whilst the oldies aren't.

8. Magnolia paint is not a home improvement. Why a new bathroom is ecologically unfriendly.

9. How the increased in rental properties can lead to community breakdown.

10. How other countries do housing better. ie: More cheap rentals, better tenancies etc.

11. Why anything less than buying 100% is stupid.

Edited June 27, 2011 by SarahBell

[bomberbrown]

Pound to a penny that this programme fails to tackle the elephant in the room and will skirt around the issues of derelict properties yada yada etc.

[Tired of Waiting]

Pound to a penny that this programme fails to tackle the elephant in the room and will skirt around the issues of derelict properties yada yada etc.

Seriously though, if the young researchers for the OP programme just watch this 4 minutes video, they will know 90% of what there is to know about the credit bubble.

And it takes just 2 keywords (elephant Gordon) for Google to put this at the top.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=&q=elephant+gordon&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGLL_en___GB407&ie=UTF-8&aq=0&oq=elephant+gordon

[Monkey]

I'm going to make a show that gets everyone a Ferrari.

[Pent Up]

Pound to a penny that this programme fails to tackle the elephant in the room and will skirt around the issues of derelict properties yada yada etc.

It will be too high deposit requirements. Banks not lending. I garuantee it will not show a single episode that discusses prices being too high.

[Executive Sadman]

Architect George Clarke leads Empty Homes Campaign

Does your area need better housing conditions? Want to do something about it?

Channel 4's George Clarke is presenting a new TV series which will campaign on housing issues across the UK. The campaign offers you the chance to share your housing problems and join the search for solutions.

Across the country high rental costs, long waiting lists for council houses and difficulty getting mortgages are forcing many people to live in cramped conditions, stay with friends or family, and give up the dream of owning their own home.

It’s been described as a national housing crisis - ordinary families are being priced out of the market and there are 5 million people on the house waiting list. Yet, a million homes in this country lie empty. George’s campaign aims to combat the housing crisis, and one of the key questions we’re asking is: Could empty homes be put to better use?

If you, or anyone you know, is struggling your housing situation, or want to find out more about the campaign, contact the Homes team:

Email: homes@tigeraspect.co.uk

or

Call the Homes team on: 0207 544 1663

I still have no idea what constitutes an empty home.

Are they the ramshackle ones

or does it include the thousands of 'vacant posession' ones owners (banks?) are sitting on?

Do we force banks to sell off homes in possession at any price?...Some of the repos ive seen sit there for ages.

[Tired of Waiting]

I still have no idea what constitutes an empty home.

Are they the ramshackle ones

or does it include the thousands of 'vacant posession' ones owners (banks?) are sitting on?

Do we force banks to sell off homes in possession at any price?...Some of the repos ive seen sit there for ages.

Very good point Sadman.

[happy_renting]

Have the developers sold any Brookside Propertiesyet?

[Goat]

Yet, a million homes in this country lie empty. George’s campaign aims to combat the housing crisis, and one of the key questions we’re asking is: Could empty homes be put to better use?

Could be interesting, but I suspect what you'll find is:

20% are second homes/holiday cottages.

20% are in the process of being either sold or rented.

20% are derelict and uninhabitable.

40% are in areas where no-one wants to live anyway.

And no doubt the programme will ignore the key point that 10 years of non-stop property porn matched with a credit bubble convinced everyone that their houses were far more valuable than they actually are.

[timebandit]

It will be too high deposit requirements. Banks not lending. I guarantee it will not show a single episode that discusses prices being too high.

Agree 100%, so how about it Tiger Aspect, first episode dedicated to house values being to high in the UK, rather than the bank not lending.

My idea would be a rental cap, linked to council tax.

Council tax @ £1,000 per year x 5 to work out the maximum a landlord could charge a year.

£1000=£5,000 or twelve monthly payments of £416

This would have the added benefit of taxpayers (savings) paying less to landlords through housing benefits.

Edited June 28, 2011 by timebandit

[Monkey]

Agree 100%, so how about it Tiger Aspect, first episode dedicated to house values being to high in the UK, rather than the bank not lending.

My idea would be a rental cap, linked to council tax.

Council tax @ £1,000 per year x 5 to work out the maximum a landlord could charge a year.

£1000=£5,000 or twelve monthly payments of £416

This would have the added benefit of taxpayers (savings) paying less to landlords through housing benefits.

this should be law for ALL rentals, my rent would drop £200pcm

[TigerAspect]

Hi everyone

Taking note of all these comments and passing them on to the rest of the team so thanks guys. If anyone has been personally affected by these issues or perhaps knows of someone who has we are really interested to hear about these experiences too so get in touch.

Thanks again!

[Monkey]

Hi everyone

Taking note of all these comments and passing them on to the rest of the team so thanks guys. If anyone has been personally affected by these issues or perhaps knows of someone who has we are really interested to hear about these experiences too so get in touch.

Thanks again!

i would recomend you have a look round this site, yes there are some crack pots, but there is some very interesting views, alot of the views are not inline with the general public, mainly as it goes against the mantra of "houses always go up in price" and "nowt safer than bricks and mortar"

[SarahBell]

40% are in areas where no-one wants to live anyway.

So what would you suggest to make people want to live in an area?

Stick a university there? (Oh wait we're about to pop the university bubble too...)

Some jobs would be useful.

[Tired of Waiting]

So what would you suggest to make people want to live in an area?

Stick a university there? (Oh wait we're about to pop the university bubble too...)

Some jobs would be useful.

But why should we try to "make people want to live in an area"? Countries change, evolve, people move, we should allow the natural growth of some areas, and the natural shrinkage of others. The south needs more houses, the north may have enough, or need less. That is fine. We should allow the market to build them, where people want to live.

[Georgia O'Keeffe]

So what would you suggest to make people want to live in an area?

Stick a university there? (Oh wait we're about to pop the university bubble too...)

Some jobs would be useful.

well thats not hard,you want locally set income taxes (so authorities can genuinely compete like they do in cantons) and ideally local interest rates, the uk in its current form is like a mini eurozone, london bleeds everywhere dry by the distortion it creates in having everything set for London and every govt since the 80s has just added to the distortion rather than fix it, because that means hard work, so tories subsidized them with benefits (debt) and labour with Public sector jobs (more debt), the solution isnt debt it is to give people the opportunity to create wealth, thats about as far from the ethos of any party in the UK so as to make it an impossible dream, the more centralized it is the more distortion is created, and cut the nonsense of london weighting "ooh i need to get paid more in london coz the costs are higher, the weighting itself when worked through the economy goes towards guaranteeing the distortion, its a complete nonsense)

Edited June 28, 2011 by georgia o'keeffe

[Dorkins]

Hi everyone

Taking note of all these comments and passing them on to the rest of the team so thanks guys. If anyone has been personally affected by these issues or perhaps knows of someone who has we are really interested to hear about these experiences too so get in touch.

Thanks again!

Please don't conclude your programme by saying that it's all the banks' fault for not lending big enough mortgages. It really isn't their job to do that. Sellers need to be realistic and cut their prices to what buyers can afford with their deposit plus whatever mortgage they can actually secure.

Edited June 28, 2011 by Dorkins

[Tired of Waiting]

Please don't conclude your programme by saying that it's all the banks' fault for not lending big enough mortgages. It really isn't their job to do that. Sellers need to be realistic and cut their prices to what buyers can afford with their deposit plus whatever mortgage they can actually secure.

+ 1

Prices are too high, in relation to incomes.

More credit just boosts demand, pushing prices even higher.

[Goat]

So what would you suggest to make people want to live in an area?

Stick a university there? (Oh wait we're about to pop the university bubble too...)

Some jobs would be useful.

Just an observation that 1,000,000 empty homes doesn't really tell you anything.

[SarahBell]

George really needs to look at why people are opposing LHA cuts.

housing benefit costs have doubled in the last ten years - but people seem to think taxpayers should pay "any price the landlords ask" -

50% of people on LHA are actually working and so would IMMEDIATELY benefit from a reduction - they might not need to claim benefit if they can afford the rent.

Without affordable housing (and that means affordable on low wages without govt support) the UK is doomed to not be economically viable.

A survey from Shelter tells us various councillors oppose the cuts.

Is it worth trying to FOI the stats on how many of them own second propertys, run BTL empires - is there a national register of councillors interests?

Every penny paid less in rent is a penny more in the pocket of the worker and a penny that can be spent in the wider economy.

Problem is it's not pennies - it's billions a year.

Someone did some great FOI research on LHA and benefit numbers on here not so long back.