Key Worker Housing Mis-sold

[SpoonUnit]

What a surprise! Snouts in the trough of a NuLabour "initiative"

Affordable housing is designed to cater for the needs of "key workers" who may not have high incomes.

However, in many cases the properties are not going to the people they were meant for.

Flats intended for nurses and teachers are ending up in the hands of well paid professionals such as accountants or bank managers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6051464.stm

Edited October 15, 2006 by SpoonUnit

[crash2006]

What a surprise! Snouts in the trough of a NuLabour "initiative"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6051464.stm

they should be made to leave, and have there money returned to them.

[ʎqɐqɹǝʞɐɥs]

What a surprise! Snouts in the trough of a NuLabour "initiative"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6051464.stm

Scum! :angry:

[Golden Shower]

A sad but predicatble result when a government tinkers with markets, it just makes things worse!

[StainlessSteelCat]

they should be made to leave, and have there money returned to them.

minus market rent for the time they stayed there of course.

[CrashedOutAndBurned]

This is why the whole key worker/HomeBuy idea is daft.

1. Restrict speculation in residential housing.

2. Place legal limits on mortgage multiples.

There are hundreds of way to 'have a punt' without ruining the country for millions of people.

[ʎqɐqɹǝʞɐɥs]

This is why the whole key worker/HomeBuy idea is daft.

1. Restrict speculation in residential housing.

2. Place legal limits on mortgage multiples.

There are hundreds of way to 'have a punt' without ruining the country for millions of people.

Scum! :angry:

[Sledgehead]

A sad but predicatble result when a government tinkers with markets, it just makes things worse!

Hear, hear!

[Brian Potter]

What a surprise! Snouts in the trough of a NuLabour "initiative"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6051464.stm

However, if I recall, the selling off of the nations council house stock was a tory move which now leaves us with a shortage of cheap housing in cities like london, thus facilitating the need for schemes like this. I'm not a Nu labour-ite but the world did exist before 1997.

[adibrown]

Used to lease an office from an Housing Assoc. in Brighton. Great location and the 6 flats above were massive and equipped with all the latest marble worktops, fancy bathrooms (the sort of stuff your normal hardworking person cannot afford). These were key worker/social housing flats but the top floor flat was owned by a 30 yr old guy who would happily come into our office and tell us how he was making £5k a week from selling viagra/sex aids on the internet. Later on he started up a Brighton sex directory and he would have a dozen or so quite dodgy people coming and going day in day out. The flat below him was owned by a Nigerian woman who had a 4 yr old boy. She used to park her brand new BMW 4x4 outside every now and again when she was unloading bag after bag of new clothes etc. Next door was another couple and he was a "property developer" and she worked as a manager of a local popular restaurant.

Anyway when the Housing officer came to see us I was telling him how I was angry at having to pay £2,300 a month rent plus £480 a month business rates when the guy in the top flat was running his business for next to nothing. This guy was completely in agreement and told me how they were annoyed because the guy in the top flat had been fast tracked on the list because he was on parole and suffering from depression. The woman in the flat next door it turned out was now his new girlfriend but he had his suspicions that in fact she had been his partner for more than a few years. Then he told me that they were both in the process of buying the two flats through some scheme the association ran. The mans master plan was to make it into one big flat and as it was top floor it would then be a penthouse (over 2,500 square foot). Due to this "scheme" the officer then told me that the price they were paying was about £60k. "the annoying thing is that he openly brags to me he reckons he can sell it for £500k+ once his no-sell period is over" said this HA officer.

Anyway the general conversation went on with him telling us about how easy his job was and how he was being paid a fortune for doing very little and etc etc and how the Housing Association was making a mint out of the whole "housing crisis" and it was full of people collecting £40k+ wages for a 10-4 working day.

In conclusion I worked out that if I had burgled a few houses and played the system to get a "right to buy" I would have already been retired by now. Instead hard work has led to nothing but high taxes as I struggle to pay for more criminals to claim their £300k rewards for being anti social.

A friends sisters boyfriend was talking about how his mum had done a council house exchange some years ago and moved from the North East to London. She had swapped for a 3 bedder in Waterloo Bridge Road, London SE1 and at the time her 4 bed detached in a rural area of the North East actually looked like a good deal in comparison. Anyway at 18 him and his then G/F (They had already had 2 kids) were given a council house in Hammersmith. He did a right to buy some years later and his g/f left him a month after he did that.

The situation today for this guy (never worked) who is now 34 yrs old is as follows. He has just bought a £650k detached dream house in rural Sussex......CASH!!!. How did he do it, simple his Mum sold and he sold up and now his Mum lives in an annexe of this house (yes it really is that big!!).

Anyway he was talking about how clever his Mum was to move to a Council House in London because it has now "made them". He was talking as if it was a high level business decision. I couldnt believe that this family had never worked and in 20 years had managed to make a lot more than a majority of those that had worked all their lives.

Yesterday my mate rang to say he was looking after the family dog because his sister, this man and the mans Mum were off to Mexico on a little break (The Mum is actually going on a mini cruise as well whilst out there).

If only a careers officer at school had told me about the dole route I would have snapped it up. Damn those careers people. Why did I have to fall into this dead end working debacle.

[Brian Potter]

Why did I have to fall into this dead end working debacle.

because governments of all persuations over the last 50 years have allowed it to happen. It was exactly the same in the early 90's. I was made redundant in the early 90's. Qualified and desperate to work.

Imagine being stood in a queue with a life long doley who has a council house, free school meals for his kids, council tax paid etc. getting changed out of his 'work' gear in the queue to sign on. The state encourages wasters to cheat the system and until you have seen it first hand you have no idea how rampant it is.

[bomberbrown]

When these developments are built in these affluent areas, where the average price of a 1 bed flat is in the region of £400k, do people really think that they are going to be able to sell them to the proles or 'key workers' on a combined income of less than £50k? And would the rich really want to fork out huge sums of money to live next door to a mere key worker? (probably their perception - not mine)

These politicians and social engineers need to get a grip!!!

Shared ownership is a scam in itself. More often than not, the amount of rent you pay on the % you don't own, would easily cover the % of the mortgage you'd need to own it outright. And lets not forget, these shared ownership places are NOT subsidised, they sell for OPEN MARKET values.

[CrashedOutAndBurned]

A friends sisters boyfriend was talking about how his mum had done a council house exchange some years ago and moved from the North East to London. She had swapped for a 3 bedder in Waterloo Bridge Road, London SE1 and at the time her 4 bed detached in a rural area of the North East actually looked like a good deal in comparison. Anyway at 18 him and his then G/F (They had already had 2 kids) were given a council house in Hammersmith. He did a right to buy some years later and his g/f left him a month after he did that.

The situation today for this guy (never worked) who is now 34 yrs old is as follows. He has just bought a £650k detached dream house in rural Sussex......CASH!!!. How did he do it, simple his Mum sold and he sold up and now his Mum lives in an annexe of this house (yes it really is that big!!).

Anyway he was talking about how clever his Mum was to move to a Council House in London because it has now "made them". He was talking as if it was a high level business decision. I couldnt believe that this family had never worked and in 20 years had managed to make a lot more than a majority of those that had worked all their lives.

Yesterday my mate rang to say he was looking after the family dog because his sister, this man and the mans Mum were off to Mexico on a little break (The Mum is actually going on a mini cruise as well whilst out there).

This is very common. In fact, I've met a few people in early middle-age who've never done more than the most basic low-paid jobs intermittently in really nice houses because they cashed in the London council flat they bought for £40k or less for big bucks and moved out to somewhere leafy without having to spend a dime extra.

I have no problem with decent council homes for the low paid - there should be thousands more built - but the right to buy has handed out lottery wins to some while waiting lists extend into decades and people who've slogged and scrimped and got an education can't afford a hutch.

Over the years I've lost count of how many degree-educated, slogging-away young people from working or lower middle class families speak incredulously of how the sibling who failed at life and started working the welfare system has ended up massively better off.

[Sledgehead]

Anyway he was talking about how clever his Mum was to move to a Council House in London because it has now "made them". He was talking as if it was a high level business decision. I couldnt believe that this family had never worked and in 20 years had managed to make a lot more than a majority of those that had worked all their lives.

....

If only a careers officer at school had told me about the dole route I would have snapped it up. Damn those careers people. Why did I have to fall into this dead end working debacle.

I have noticed that money is often made not through presciently identifying or creating new consumer desires and needs, but by studying the system and playing what is there before your eyes.

The first route interests those who seek to pit their skills on a level playing field. It requires an assessment / acceptance of risk and business / marketing flair. It is desirable and honourable, because it generates new growth. The second route interests those who are not interested in fair competition, but seek an un-level playing field. They attach no value to marketing or risk assessment and, indeed, seek to avoid risk at all costs. Any growth that occurs from their manoeverings is generally temporary, as it comes fromthe policies of government, who, as we know, are hopeless at deciding what people really want. The 2012 Olympics will be a classic example. Piranna will get fat and a huge folly will be built, just like the Millenium dome. meanwhile real businesses will get no backing, either equity or debt.

[simon99]

I'm not surprised at all since all these shared ownership and key worker schemes are about propping house prices up.

[adibrown]

Any growth that occurs from their manoeverings is generally temporary, as it comes fromthe policies of government, who, as we know, are hopeless at deciding what people really want. The 2012 Olympics will be a classic example. Piranna will get fat and a huge folly will be built, just like the Millenium dome. meanwhile real businesses will get no backing, either equity or debt.

The 2012 olympics is the golden ticket for literally thousands upon thousands of East End council tenants. This is a genuine email a friend received after advertising his house for exchange:

Hello *****, I have a 3/4 bed property in Manor park, east london. Close to where the 2012 olympics will be.

When you say an exchange would I have to own my property? I'm sure I would (silly question) however I am wanting to buy from council to invest because of the olympics. I know presently, properties on this residential street are being sold at on average £250,000. I am also very close to Wanstead (2 mins away) and Ilford and Stratford.

I would very much like to own my own property in Devon.

kind regards

Kwasi

Tens of thousands of lazy good for nothings will walk away in 2011 with around £300k-£400k cash.........be warned, they are looking for a house in a leafy suburb/rural village and they are paying in cash. They are also looking for an estate or development with a few houses going so they can all move in together. I can already see a new series of neighbours from hell on the horizon