Leave inheritance to grandkids to solve housing crisis

[Nabby81]

Front page to Telegraph Cunning plan to help the housing crisis is to encourage people to skip generation and leave inheritance to grandkids to allow them to buy ...

And as a side not the level of equity on hones owned by over 55s is greater than the GDP of Italy 

[giggler000]

This isn't a option for everyone yet everyone needs a roof.

 

[Gribble]

Pathetic. Typical Telegraph ****** - assumes people will get an inheritance. Even well off may not be able to give an inheritance after nursing fees. Does not address underlying issue of extortionate property prices. Not even worth bothering to read    

[Dorkins]

It's not the Telegraph saying this, it's the blimmin' Housing Minister, Gavin Barwell:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/09/inheritance-should-skip-a-generation-says-minister/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Scunnered]

24 minutes ago, Dorkins said:

It's not the Telegraph saying this, it's the blimmin' Housing Minister, Gavin Barwell:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/09/inheritance-should-skip-a-generation-says-minister/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

This guy's just brimming over with brilliant ideas. 

[Dorkins]

36 minutes ago, Scunnered said:

This guy's just brimming over with brilliant ideas. 

He's never been in charge of anything. School -> Oxbridge -> Conservative Central Office -> Councillor in Croydon (8 years in opposition, 4 years in power and he wasn't the leader) -> MP (6 years).

Experience of being a leader, successfully delivering projects = 0. Actually I tell a lie, he was president of the Cambridge Union for a term in the early 90s. Hopefully that was sufficient preparation for getting to grips with the UK housing crisis.

Between the 2010 and 2015 general elections his majority went from 3k to 165. He could well be out in 2020 if homeownership continues to collapse in Croydon and the Conservatives do nothing for private renters.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Dorkins

[Pop321]

This has always been my solution to the small inheritances we may get from our elderly parent (and I appreciate I add to the the problem). On one side our parents have already arranged to leave anything to grandchildren. On the other it's a little messier but anything we may get will be passed straight into our children. Three points: 

1) for us, this was not specifically a 'inheritance for housing issue' but rather an acknowledgement our kids have had it much harder than we did. (We are 47 years old and our children both rent and already have young families themselves) 

2) the number of wealthy 55 years olds who inherit and don't pass money into their kids astounds me. They take holidays whilst their 30 year old kids struggle with debt. 

3) not even for a micro second would I ever suggest 'my solution' is available to others many of whom are less fortunate than me...nor would I ever suggest it is 'a solution' generally.

For a housing minister to think this helps shows an absolute lack of understanding of the problem of house prices and also a total lack of empathy about how many people out there struggle and how little they have. 

Mits okay to do this....it's not okay to think it's a great solution or idea for all. 

Edited October 10, 2016 by Phil321
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[Ah-so]

It will clearly make sense for many. Someone in their 80s today are likely to have boomer children (boo hiss) who have done very well out if property and pension schemes. It is the grandchildren who are most likely to struggle: huge student debt and house prices at record multiples of earnings. For many, an early inheritance may be their only chance to own. 

[winkie]

I would say generally people are pensioners themselves when/if they receive an inheritance........my inheritance is my pension, my repayment proposal.

[Si1]

38 minutes ago, Ah-so said:

It will clearly make sense for many. Someone in their 80s today are likely to have boomer children (boo hiss) who have done very well out if property and pension schemes. It is the grandchildren who are most likely to struggle: huge student debt and house prices at record multiples of earnings. For many, an early inheritance may be their only chance to own. 

But the boomers too have entitlement. To nice holidays and new cars. Keep up now.

[Caravan Monster]

What about the people in 30's / early 40's who don't have children because they have been in government caused precarious housing and employment situations for the last 15 + years ? I guess they get an inheritance if they are lucky, but it's entirely missing the point that houses have become a drain on society and successive governments could and should have corrected it, but continually choose not to. Gavin Barwell rapidly becoming new hate figure.

[AvoidDebt]

Is this guy for real? Can he not see the blatant FRAUD that is happening right under his nose? Buy a house in 2013 and try to sell it in 2016 after adding 100'000s of pounds to its price? Either he's in on the scam or he blagged it through the interview. 

[Futuroid]

Stroke of genius there from the Tories.

Must have polling data that suggests the dirty tenant generation aren't Tory voters so best to cut their losses and go after the millennials.

[Futuroid]

2 hours ago, Caravan Monster said:

What about the people in 30's / early 40's who don't have children because they have been in government caused precarious housing and employment situations for the last 15 + years ?

You get ignored for 30 years and then when we have a referendum about leaving the UN you can have your protest vote ;-)

[hi5lo5]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2016/oct/10/no-10-housing-minister-gavin-barwell-will-grandchildren

[Parkwell]

Dear Croydon Central,

Please do something about that muppet MP.

Sincerely,

A Renter

 

[MonkeyPuzzle]

It ignores the fact that one-third of all over-55s in the UK are tenants, not owner-occupiers. 

These 'squeezed middles' are the very ones who are expected from age 40 to 70 to be able to dispense double-fisted handouts of their own hard-earned cash on demand, both up the generational ladder to their decrepit parents who need groceries and care paying for, and down the generational ladder to their live-at-home adult children in media jobs who think that their parents ought to give them a deposit to buy a house.  The last thing these poor buggers need is Parliamentary Smarty Pants urging the UK's oldsters to cut them out of whatever minor inheritance they might have been given.

[jiltedjen]

2 hours ago, MonkeyPuzzle said:

It ignores the fact that one-third of all over-55s in the UK are tenants, not owner-occupiers. 

These 'squeezed middles' are the very ones who are expected from age 40 to 70 to be able to dispense double-fisted handouts of their own hard-earned cash on demand, both up the generational ladder to their decrepit parents who need groceries and care paying for, and down the generational ladder to their live-at-home adult children in media jobs who think that their parents ought to give them a deposit to buy a house.  The last thing these poor buggers need is Parliamentary Smarty Pants urging the UK's oldsters to cut them out of whatever minor inheritance they might have been given.

had plenty of time to buy yourself a dirt cheap house.

Should your children suffer due to your mistakes? Just when they are facing a far harder life than you yourself ever had to deal with.

seems good advise to me, skipping the gifted generation is the very least you could do. 

plenty of boomers take all they can from the world, get inheritance from a generation who also had it pretty shit, go on nice holidays, spunk it on alcohol.

then wonder why their 30 year old children can't buy or have children themselves. 

Your post is typical of selfish boomers. all 'me me me'. 

 

[MonkeyPuzzle]

On 12 October 2016 at 11:13 PM, jiltedjen said:

 

Your post is typical of selfish boomers. all 'me me me'. 

 

Nope. I’m not a Boomer. I’m a GenXer from the 1970s, which makes me as cynical as all hell. I prefer fairness not over-entitled Veruca Salt style greed which your post is typical of. 

 

Just run the numbers to see how this whole scummy, scammy theory works and why someone like that would call for this kind of nonsense.

 

Old Granddad bequeathing £1m to his four age-fifty-something offspring gives them £250K each. Not really enough to buy a decent place in many parts of the UK, but enough to pay for a good proportion of one – thus eliminating the need for a hefty outsized mortgage loan. Say each of the four take out £150K mortgages to get their £400K houses. That’s adding £600K to the personal debt pile.

 

BUT if Old Granddad sticks one up his own middle-aged offspring, leaves them out completely, and instead bequeaths his £1m to his ten grandchildren who are twenty-somethings, it gives them £100K each. What a great guy. Ok it’s not enough to buy anything outright, but enough to… see where this is going?... trigger TEN high, deep, and long term mortgage loans and immediately create at least FIVE TIMES more personal debt (yay!) of the sort that keeps the property market afloat. So of course people who are desperate to "solve the housing crisis" (read: keep the morally insupportable speculative housing market casino rolling at any cost) are calling for this kind of nonsense -- it creates far more ‘profit potential’ -- a £3M ‘mortgage debt opportunity’ let’s call it -- as each of the 10 grandkids takes out £300K to get their £400K houses. Mortgage lenders dancing up and down wetting their pants with excitement no doubt.

I would hope each of those grandkids' houses come with self-contained flats attached to them so they can provide a roof over the heads of their by-passed parents for the duration of their dotage.

[Confusion of VIs]

On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 6:05 PM, Parkwell said:

Dear Croydon Central,

Please do something about that muppet MP.

Sincerely,

A Renter

 

He is actually a very good constituency MP, who has a genuine interest in housing and is not a fan of either BTL or amateur LLs.

I looked at the sources of the headlines about reducing minimum flat sizes and passing on inheritances to the grandchildren. The first seems to have been a generalisation based upon comments about a specific type of student accommodation. The second was a deliberate misrepresentation to generate a headline, he actually said he would not want to live in a country where you needed an inheritance to afford to buy a home.