OnionTerror Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/houseboats-to-provide-key-to-uk-housing-crisis-2344692.html The government has unveiled its latest answer to the shortage of affordable homes in Britain: it wants more people to live on houseboats. Local authorities will be given financial incentives to allow more residential moorings on rivers, canals and tidal waters, while the public could qualify for housing benefit to cover mooring fees. About 15,000 people live on boats and ministers want to make the option available to many others amid concern about the cost of getting a foot on the housing ladder and the number of new homes being built. Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister, said yesterday: "Whilst they will never overtake bricks and mortar in putting a roof over the heads of families, innovative new ways of housing families – such as residential moorings – play an important role in allowing people to live near their place of work, children's school, or family, and where perhaps they would not be able to afford to otherwise." He believed many more people would like to live on boats. With half the population living within five miles of a waterway, he said, the wider public could benefit from a funding injection. Where houseboat residents pay council tax, communities will be eligible for the "new homes bonus", a £250m-a-year pot of grants to encourage local authorities to provide more housing. Alan Wildman, chairman of the Residential Boat Owners' Association, said: "Living afloat is arguably the most sustainable, lowest impact way to live." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
200p Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/houseboats-to-provide-key-to-uk-housing-crisis-2344692.html We can solve the housing problem in another way, er how about using the 1 million empty homes and raising the cost of owing second "weekend" homes. OR build massive under ground citiess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 I know a couple of people whi lived on boats. Not as cheap as you might think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
200p Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 No it isn't cheap, I had looked at the option and decided the idea was insane. Boats cost around £100K, and they were really seocnd homes, not the main home. Maybe one day if we get rich enough and this current round of FTB can pay off their first homes, they can have the "Luxury" of buying a holiday home as well :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnlyMe Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Hitler will be turning in his grave wonder how the hell he never managed to knock these isels out - rather than amassing the luftwaffe across the channel if inly he'd piped homes under the hammer and amkeover programmes 24 hour a day he'd have won - creating such a mess of the country he could have just ignored it as an irrelevence incapable of managing a pisss up in a brewery, let along halt his ambitions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyHead Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Each time the Housing Minister opens his mouth, I become more convinced the guy is a total moron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pent Up Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Why not just build more houses? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyman1974 Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/houseboats-to-provide-key-to-uk-housing-crisis-2344692.html While the residential mooring allows you to live on them (to be fair you pretty much can on non-residential moorings if you keep your head down (you often just need the post to be delivered elsewhere)) it is unlikely you'll be about to "buy" the mooring space in perpetuity. Round my way (Herts/Essex borders), the ground rent is £3,000 pa for a non-resi mooring, and you occupy under an annual licence. The licence fee is not controlled, and rather reacts to market (supply/demand) pricing I'm not convinced It's a practical solution until you can be sure you can live there under a longer controlled licence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnlyMe Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 (edited) Each time the Housing Minister opens his mouth, I become more convinced the guy is a total moron. That is being unkind to total morons. With the removal of "garden grabbing" plot availability (and looking at the latest planning permissions granted) expect to see a rapid decline in the building sector - all the way from developer level to individual trades to suppliers and all the associated furnishing / white goods demand that supplies this sector, increased unemployment, lower incomes and less tax. Stickiing a knife into a job market sector that could propably stand on its own and function under current circumstances is insane in the extreme. Edited August 27, 2011 by OnlyMe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homerenter Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Why restrict this to areas with a waterway? By using caravans you can pursue this policy throughout the land. -- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashConnoisseur Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Local authorities will be given financial incentives to allow more residential moorings on rivers, canals and tidal waters, while the public could qualify for housing benefit to cover mooring fees. Housing Benefit can already cover mooring fees. So no Shappsian 'innovation' there. 'Housing Benefit': http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/technical-guidance/rr2-a-guide-to-housing-benefit/housing-benefit/your-accommodation/ HouseboatsYou may be able to get help through HB for your mooring fees or river license fee where this has to be paid for the boat to be in the water, but not for other costs associated with houseboats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 (edited) Hitler will be turning in his grave wonder how the hell he never managed to knock these isels out - rather than amassing the luftwaffe across the channel if inly he'd piped homes under the hammer and amkeover programmes 24 hour a day he'd have won - creating such a mess of the country he could have just ignored it as an irrelevence incapable of managing a pisss up in a brewery, let along halt his ambitions. Hitler had his own, equally hopeful plans for the Uk & barges Operation Sea Lion One of the more glaring deficiencies in the German Navy for mounting large-scale amphibious assaults was an almost complete lack of purpose-built landing craft. The Navy had already taken some small steps in remedying this situation with construction of the Pionierlandungsboot 39 (Engineer Landing Boat 39), a self-propelled shallow-draft vessel which could carry 45 infantrymen, two light vehicles or 20 tons of cargo and land on an open beach (unloading via a pair of clamshell doors at the bow). But by late September 1940, only two prototypes had been delivered.[21] Recognising the need for an even larger craft capable of landing both tanks and infantry onto a hostile shore, the Navy began development of the 220-ton Marinefährprahm (MFP) but these too were unavailable in time for a landing on English soil in 1940, the first of them not being commissioned until April 1941. Landing craft Invasion barges assembled at the German port of Wilhelmshaven... The obvious solution for the Navy to assemble a large sea-going invasion fleet in the short time allotted was to convert inland river barges to the task. Towards that end, the Kriegsmarine collected approximately 2,400 barges from throughout Europe (860 from Germany, 1,200 from the Netherlands and Belgium and 350 from France). Of these, only about 800 were powered (some insufficiently). The rest required towing by tugs.[22] Len Deighton and some other writers have called the German amphibious plans a "Dunkirk in reverse".[23 Edited August 27, 2011 by Saving For a Space Ship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybernoid Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 I explored this option a bit, a houseboat is in competition with other types of home, so guess what, they cost the bloody same or more. And people pay it because in the summer it's an interesting and novel way to live. In the winter, not so much. Looked at one, was 1k a month, the same as nearby flats overlooking the same river. Not cheaper, not helping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruffneck Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 I explored this option a bit, a houseboat is in competition with other types of home, so guess what, they cost the bloody same or more. And people pay it because in the summer it's an interesting and novel way to live. In the winter, not so much. Looked at one, was 1k a month, the same as nearby flats overlooking the same river. Not cheaper, not helping. 1k a month , what is the justification for those sort of prices? "Land , because they're not making any more" doesn't really apply here does it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgia O'Keeffe Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 (edited) It rather appeals. I once saw a wonderful documentary about these people: http://dinghycruising.org.uk/ Lots of sweet little old men pottering around with canvas and puffing on pipes, and camping on wild, root-strewn river beaches like 'Wind in the willows'. i think i saw that doc, it was called Cannibal Holocaust, wonderfully innovative seating methods Edited August 27, 2011 by Tamara De Lempicka Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HouseDog Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Northampton started work sometime ago on its marina. The council envisages that of the 80 moorings, 6 will be residential and the rest a mixture of permanent and visitor moorings. The permanent moorings are likely to be for people that live locally and want mooring for their boat. I guess within three years all 80 moorings will be canal boats - being lived in permanently. http://www.northampton.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=804 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmf Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/houseboats-to-provide-key-to-uk-housing-crisis-2344692.html I actually had a boomer suggest this to me the other day. I suggested we have a massive cull of boomers. I think both are unlikely but I know which would be fairer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybernoid Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 1k a month , what is the justification for those sort of prices? "Land , because they're not making any more" doesn't really apply here does it? They only have to compete with other housing, and in that location the going rate for flats was 1k a month, so they charge the same and get away with it. The novelty of it probably helps. I think that wears off in winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyHead Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Will make it very tempting to just sail away from this friggin country. Think Shappshead! Try gettin your council tax from me then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Self Employed Youth Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Will make it very tempting to just sail away from this friggin country. Think Shappshead! Try gettin your council tax from me then! A seaworthy vessel that you can launch cannot have council tax levied upon it. The price of moorings however is different. You might aswell get a caravan or tent. Build a tin shack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold Bishop Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 It would be an option for many on the canals and rivers as they do tend to be right in the middle of towns and cities. But most private marinas are massively expensive and for holiday boats ( read.. second homes) only. The other moorings are owned by the Inland Waterways. Still not cheap and there is a chance they'll be privatised with massive rent rises. The boats depreciate unlike houses, which as we know only go up in price. Boats are massively expensive to maintain and there is lots of legislation to comply with. There there are the issues of sewage, red diesel, water supply, security and heating. It can be done and loads do but the money needed to live in reasonable comfort would get you a house. Or how about this. An Eco House Boat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juvenal Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 UK governments of every stripe will do anything; suggest anything (however degrading or ludicrous) rather than state outright that house prices are too high. Shapps is an absolute disgrace. What's next? Shared ownership of a newbuild houseboat, bought at the boatbuilder's inflated asking price? I am utterly disgusted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 I wouldn't live on a boat unless it had a six inch gun turret fore and aft! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
200p Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 How about old diesel submarines or oil tankers converted to studio flats? They could have used HMS Invincible or the Ark Royal, park them up in the Thames (dredge it first) and et voila you have accommodation for 1000 people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie The Tramp Returns Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 housing Shortage Solved - Live On A Houseboat When Winter arrives living on water produces damp and cold conditions down to the chest that bug does go. November my boat comes out and rests until the Spring when she goes back in. Another crackpot idea from Boy Dave and his sixth form Prefects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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